There are really no words that can accurately describe what he went through. This man’s story is unfathomable, and inspiring. With illustrations, maps, and photographs throughout, 438 Days is a study of the resilience, will, ingenuity, and determination required for one man to survive fourteen months, lost at sea.įirst of all, happy two year rescue anniversary to Salvador Alvarenga! It was exactly two years ago today that Alvarenga washed up onto a little island and was taken in by a generous local couple who helped nurse him back to health. He imagined a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough for the Pacific Ocean to toss him up on a remote palm-studded island, where he was saved by a local couple living alone in their own Pacific Island paradise.īased on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and interviews with his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to health, this is an epic tale of survival, an all-true version of the fictional Life of Pi.

But Alvarenga never failed to invent an alternative reality. He considered suicide on multiple occasions-including offering himself up to a pack of sharks. Using fish vertebrae as needles, he stitched together his own clothes. Taking apart the outboard motor, he fashioned a huge fishhook. He built a fish net from a pair of empty plastic bottles. He learned to catch fish with his bare hands. When he washed ashore on January 29, 2014, he had arrived in the Marshall Islands, 9,000 miles away-equivalent to traveling from New York to Moscow round trip.įor fourteen months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks. The storm picked up and blasted him west. A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged his boat out to sea. On November 17, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico for a two-day fishing trip. Published by Atria Books on November 17, 2015Ĥ38 Days is the miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history-as told to journalist Jonathan Franklin in dozens of exclusive interviews. 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival by Jonathan Franklin

Jonathan franklin 438 days