438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

On November 17, 2012, two men left the coast of Mexico for a weekend fishing commute in the open Pacific. That night, a violent storm ambushed them as they were fishing eighty miles offshore. As gale force winds and ten-foot waves pummeled their small, open boat from all sides and nearly capsized them, captain Salvador Alvarenga and his crewmate cut away a two-mile-long fishing line and started a desperate dash through crashing waves as they sought the safety of port.

Fourteen months later, on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga, now a hairy, wild-bearded and half-mad castaway, washed ashore on a nearly deserted island on the far side of the Pacific. He could barely speak and used to be unable to walk. He claimed to have drifted from Mexico, a journey of a few seven thousand miles.

A “gripping saga,” (Daily Mail), 438 Days is the first-ever account of probably the most amazing survival stories in brand new times. In keeping with dozens of hours of exclusive interviews with Alvarenga, his colleagues, search-and-rescue officials, the remote islanders who found him, and the medical team that saved his life, 438 Days is not just “an intense, immensely absorbing read” (Booklist) but an unforgettable study of the resilience, will, ingenuity and determination required for one man to continue to exist more than a year lost and adrift at sea.