Nando Parrado ligger medvetslös i tre dagar innan han vaknar och upptäcker att planet som skulle ta hans rugbylag och deras familjer och fans till en uppvisningsmatch i Chile har störtat djupt inne i Anderna. Många är döda eller döende, bland dem hans egen mor och syster. De överlevande är strandade på en karg glaciär, de är utan mat och varma kläder, och utan någon möjlighet att tillkalla hjälp. De kämpar för att uthärda låga temperaturer, dödliga laviner och till sist den förödande nyheten att sökandet efter dem avblåsts. Den mat som finns tar snabbt slut och för att överleva tvingas de äta av de avlidnas kroppar.
Tiden går och Nando bestämmer sig för att han måste försöka ta sig hem till sin far även om han riskerar sitt liv. Ett desperat beslut, men det är hans enda chans. Nando, en vanlig ung man, utan dragning åt vare sig ledarskap eller hjältemod,leder en expedition nedför Andernas förrädiska snötäckta sluttningar och genom mil av frusen vildmark för att skaffa hjälp.
Trettio år efter katastrofen, som blivit berömd genom Piers Paul Reads bästsäljande bok Alive, berättar Nando sin egen historia med slående uppriktighet och känsla. Miraklet i Anderna är mer än en redogörelse för krashen och dess efterverkningar: det är en avslöjande inblick i en situation där livet bor granne med döden, och en betraktelse över kärlekens gränslösa och försonande makt.
In the first hours there was nothing, no fear or sadness, just a black and perfect silence.
Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as their family members and supporters, to an exhibition game in Chile had crashed somewhere deep in the Andes. He soon learned that many were dead or dying—among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a lifeless glacier at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search for them had been called off.
As time passed and Nando’s thoughts turned increasingly to his father, who he knew must be consumed with grief, Nando resolved that he must get home or die trying. He would challenge the Andes, even though he was certain the effort would kill him, telling himself that even if he failed he would die that much closer to his father. It was a desperate decision, but it was also his only chance. So Nando, an ordinary young man with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snow-capped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help.
Thirty years after the disaster Nando tells his story with remarkable candor and depth of feeling. Miracle in the Andes—a first person account of the crash and its aftermath—is more than a riveting tale of true-life adventure: it is a revealing look at life at the edge of death and a meditation on the limitless redemptive power of love.
From the Hardcover edition
In the first hours there was nothing, no fear or sadness, just a black and perfect silence.
Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as their family members and supporters, to an exhibition game in Chile had crashed somewhere deep in the Andes. He soon learned that many were dead or dying—among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a lifeless glacier at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search for them had been called off.
As time passed and Nando’s thoughts turned increasingly to his father, who he knew must be consumed with grief, Nando resolved that he must get home or die trying. He would challenge the Andes, even though he was certain the effort would kill him, telling himself that even if he failed he would die that much closer to his father. It was a desperate decision, but it was also his only chance. So Nando, an ordinary young man with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snow-capped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help.
Thirty years after the disaster Nando tells his story with remarkable candor and depth of feeling. Miracle in the Andes—a first person account of the crash and its aftermath—is more than a riveting tale of true-life adventure: it is a revealing look at life at the edge of death and a meditation on the limitless redemptive power of love.
