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Stories of Survival
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate
debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. It is the classic novel by a Nobel Prize winner
about a group of boys who, after a plane crash, set up a primitive society on an uninhabited island.
Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the
apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save
the ash on the wind. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend them against the lawless bands that stalk
the road, the clothes they are wearing, and a cart of scavenged food--and each other. The Road is the
profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which
the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love.
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Life of Pi: a novel by Yann Martel
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of
stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo
ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks and Pi finds himself alone in a
lifeboat- his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound
Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to
coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico,
Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi
refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second
story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true?
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Into Thin Air : a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster by Jon Krakauer
What started out as an assignment for Outside magazine on "commercial" expeditions to Mt. Everest
suddenly turned into a bone-chilling tale of man against nature when a hurricane-strength blizzard
battered the slopes, trapping four expeditions on the mountain. The high-altitude conditions, which can be
deadly in the best of times, when combined with the intensity of the blizzard resulted in nine deaths, five
from New Zealander Rob Hall's expedition of which Krakauer was a member. The author intertwines his
spellbinding account with the history of those who previously tackled Mt. Everest's formidable 29,028
feet.-School Library Journal.
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The Odyssey by Homer
The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest
and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks,
battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his wit and
native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await
him.
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Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the
Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the
hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally,
Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death. The next
three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead,
returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had
survived the fall but, crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten, was trapped in a deep crevasse.
Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson hopped, hobbled, and crawled over
the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching the base hours before Yates had planned to break camp.
How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and
survival; a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.
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Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
Callahan, a marine architect, lost his boat in a storm off the Canary Islands while engaged in a
singlehanded race across the Atlantic in 1981. Luckily, he carried far more than the basic emergency
equipment required- a six-person raft. Before sinking he was able to recover his emergency equipment
bag and his life raft. What makes his story different was his lack of a companion. Through his own
ingenuity he learned how to spear fish, fix his solar still, and even repair his holed raft. This is a real
human drama that delves deeply into a man's survival instincts. It should be read by anyone venturing
offshore in a small boat. –Library Journal
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A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have
become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there
are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes
of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled
by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a
first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. A Long Way Gone, Beah,
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now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and
wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the
government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
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The Long Walk: the true story of a trek to freedom by Slavomir Rawicz
In 1939, Rawicz was arrested by the Russians as a spy and sent to a labor camp in Siberia. He escaped
with six other prisoners, heading south to India, across the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas. British actor
John Lee's forceful narration, perfectly matched to the text's pace, expresses the strength and defiance that
kept Rawicz alive. –Library Journal.
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Unbroken : a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and
disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean
surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to
a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second
World War. The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. When war had come, the former athlete had
become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the
unknown. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft,
thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance,
Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and brutality with
rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
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