Out of the Silence: After the Crash (Strauch)

Out of the Silence: After the Crash, by Eduardo Strauch Urioste with Mireya Soriano, translated by Jennie Erikson (2017)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a free download from Amazon for it's World Book Day. And, yes, I chose this one to read first because it was the shortest, and I wanted something quick to read electronically. (I have a printed book I'm in the middle of, but I'd rather read it outside, if the weather would cooperate.)

The prologue is Eduardo Strauch Urioste recalling when someone had found his lost wallet and passport that he had lost many years ago, and decided it was time to open up and tell his story. The story of a plane crash he survived. As I started reading it, I suddenly thought to myself -- Wait! It's not that plane crash, is it?

Yes, it was. I remember the incident, but honestly didn't know any of the names involved. I was young at the time, and I haven't seen the movies.

It's the story of a rugby team flying from Uruguay to a match in Chile that crashed in a cordillera in the Andes, the Valley of Tears. I didn't even know what the word cordillera meant.

They weren't immediately rescued. In fact, they were up there for months, long after the food ran out. I wasn't sure that I wanted to read this, but I did. I know that they resorted to eating the bodies to stay alive. Thankfully, this was not something that was dwelt on. (I heard from others that they dwelt on it too much in the film -- and I know that South Park used it as a plot device in an early episode.)

The conditions they had to live through, and the support they gave each other, were astonishing.

The rescue comes about halfway through the book, followed by many pages of photos. After that, there's some info about life afterward, but not much. Strauch spends chapters recalling the ordeal thematically, which was a good choice. And the final portion of the book relates his return visits to site with other survivors, and other people including the man who found his jacket, with his wallet and passport. The concluding chapter is by Eduardo's wife.

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