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On 13 October 1972, the members of a top Uruguayan rugby team were flying over the Andes to play in Chile. Their plane crashed into a mountain and was stranded 11,000 feet up on an inhospitable glacier. Many died instantly in the crash, including the person sitting next to Nando, but others survived. They had almost no food or suitable equipment to withstand temperatures as low as -35C, and had to eat the bodies of their dead team-mates to survive. With the prospect only of a slow death, and no rescue likely, Nando and one of his friends set off on an impossible journey, walking and climbing for ten days in search of help. Finally, after 72 days, the 16 survivors were brought to safety.Parrado's unique viewpoint brings a new perspective to this remarkable story. His hugely inspirational tale shows how the strength of the human spirit, the close bond of friendship and faith can make you achieve the impossible. He explains how, once you realise that you must surely die, no risk becomes too great. Above all, Parrado came to understand that the opposite of death wasn't life, but love. And it was love, for his waiting father and the mother and sister who died in the crash, that saw him home.
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'This book not only reveals the lengths to which humans will go to survive, it makes you question your own strengths and weaknesses. Would you have resorted to cannibalism? Would you have survived the nights? Would you have survived the deaths of so many friends? Would you have set off for help? Only a handful of people know the answers to these questions. Nando Parrado is one - and his dramatic story is moving, powerful and riveting'
DAILY EXPRESS
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