Deep Survival

True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death

By: Laurence Gonzales

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

After her plane crashes, a 17-year-old girl spends 11 days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?

Examining such stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death, Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the essence of a survivor and offers 12 "Rules of Survival".

In the end, he finds, it is what's in your heart, not what's in your pack, that separates the living from the dead. This audiobook will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors.

©2003 Laurence Gonzales (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The study of survival offers an illuminating portal into the human psyche, and Gonzales, knowledgeable and passionate, is a compelling and trustworthy guide." (Booklist)
"A superb, entertaining addition to a nature buff's library, or for anyone not tucked safely away in a bunker." (Kirkus Reviews)

I'm not sure it can get better than this

Gonzales effortlessly weaves quantam mechanics, spirituality, psychology and James Bond into
a fascinating book that is at first glance about physical survival, but it can be used as a metaphor for many facets of human experience.

I'm in awe of how Gonzales uses information from such diverse sources - yet it all fits so logically. I can't say enough good about this book. It's intelligent, educational, emotional, and entertaining. And finally - the perfect narrator as a bonus.

Much more than just stories

I thought this book would just be a collection of survival stories, but I was mistaken. This book mainly focused on the mind set and psychology of these people, explaining the stupid and smart things they have done. I think it can really help yourself recognize what's going on.
The book has an appendix with some items that everyone can do to try to stay alive, but most the book does not.

Overall a very good book and I really appreciated it and learned a lot.

Wow - surprisingly interesting and uplifting

The stories of survival and why they survived are fascinating. This book is a terrific combination of human thoughts and actions, natural occurrences and life or death decisions.

enjoyed

I really enjoyed this book although in the beginning I thought that it would be boring. It wasn't.

Best book I've read all year

Where does Deep Survival rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Best book I've read all year

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book makes you think and helps you understand the chemical workings of the brain that lead us to do the unthinkable.

Inspiring, practical, profound and humbling

Wow. This book is one of a kind. Gonzalez weaves together cognitive neuroscience, ancient philosophical wisdom and real lived survival experiences into this braid that serves as a rope, pulling the reader up to the big-picture peak of life. Each wild story aligns with either the do’s or don’ts within the psychology of survival and leaves you feeling humble, astonished, grateful and inspired.

A perfect audio book.

Gonzales gives us so much in this book it's almost criminal to define it to one genre: Story, adventure, science, psychology, characters, heroes and self reflection among others. Rudnicki gives the best performance I've heard on Audible. You'll get it when you hear it. He was made for the book and vice versa, perfect casting. I must be getting close to listening to this damn book 100 times by now.

Not what I was expecting.

I enjoyed this book, although I would be remiss if I didn’t say that it was nothing like I thought it would be. The author focuses on the cerebral reasons behind why some survive and others do not in tragedies. A very heavy book full of complex thoughts and reasonings that may need to be taken in doses, depending on the reader.

What were they thinking?

A very valuable read for anybody who trips into the wild.
It describes commonalities that usually precede any disaster on examples of real accidents.
Biggest outcome: there is rarely a single thing that went wrong. Rather a chain of small problems and bad decisions pile up without us noticing.
Beware of unpredictability of tightly coupled complex systems. A simple rope can act as one.
A great concept of emotional bookmarks explains how we can act dumb without even noticing we set a stage for a disaster.
What were they thinking?…

It Took Me a While to Like This

I almost quit listening after four or five chapters. But then I connected with it and I couldn’t stop listening. I think initially I was getting bored with all the ‘rescue on the mountain in the snow’ stories. But once he branched out into other areas of rescue I found it more engaging. There are a lot of good life lessons in this too. For some reason I feel better equipped to take on the world after listening to this.