Alone: Lost Overboard in the Indian Ocean

by Brett Archibald Narrated by Byron Mandahl

Overview

"Solitude is terrifying and awe-inspiring in Alone." -The Wall Street Journal

Alone is an intense audiobook that will push listeners to face their deepest fears and realize the human capacity for survival.

In April 2013, fifty-year-old Brett Archibald was on board a surf-charter boat, making a night-time crossing of the remote Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. In the middle of a storm, ill with severe food poisoning, he blacked out. When he came to, he found himself in the raging sea, sixty miles from shore. As Brett saw the lights of his boat disappearing into the darkness, it became clear that no one had seen him fall, and that no one would hear his shouts for help. He was alone in the ocean.

It would be eight hours before his friends realized he was missing. At that point a frantic search began for a single man somewhere in thousands of square miles of heaving waves. The rough weather meant that no planes or helicopters could assist in the search. According to the experts, he should have died within ten to fourteen hours.

Instead, Brett battled Portuguese man o' war and jellyfish, sharks, seagulls, and the stormy seas for more than 28 hours. Alone is the remarkable tale of his miraculous survival and rescue. It is also the story of what it takes to defy extraordinary odds and the incredible power of the human spirit.

More praise for Alone:

"A gripping and sometimes emotionally draining account of survival against almost insurmountable odds. Archibald is a graceful storyteller, as adept at describing the physical challenges of staying alive (such as, for example, a brush with a shark) as he is at describing the mental challenges." - Booklist

"This survival tale pairs action with emotion and feels ready made for the big screen." - Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

10/09/2017
In this intense memoir, Archibald describes how in the middle of the night in 2013, he fell into the Indian Ocean while vomiting off the side of a boat he and his friends had chartered for a birthday surfing trip. For the next 28 hours he struggled to survive as he fought off a shark, jellyfish, and birds and struggled with his own fears and regrets. His friends discovered his disappearance eight hours after he fell overboard and launched a rescue effort that was hindered by bad weather and a lack of emergency resources in the area. Luckily, they happened on a group of Australians who also had hired a boat for their own surfing adventure; that boat’s captain, “a hostage to his past” who had saved himself from his own “demons,” saw it as his duty to find Archibald. The narrative approach can be disconcerting, however: Archibald writes in the first person as he describes his struggles in the water, then switches to third person when writing about himself from his friends’ and family’s perspectives (“Brett was notable, even admired, for his high-spirited misbehavior”). Nevertheless, this survival tale pairs action with emotion and feels ready-made for the big screen. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

"This survival tale pairs action with emotion and feels ready-made for the big screen." —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169167979
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos