Customer Reviews

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fabulously-written first-person account of survival against all odds. I could not put this book down.

Superbly written, which is why the book transcends the basic story of survival. Steve Callahan's ample opportunities for introspection weren't wasted, and this makes some of the best reading. In addition, reading this book is like watching a movie where the hero seems most certainly fated to die, buy you know he won't(or "doesn't" in this case). I eventually wanted to just skip to the rescue because I couldn't bear to read of any more disappointment, disillusionment, equipment loss or failures, or physical or mental suffering. Right up there with my favorite true-life read, "Hacksaw".

This book is an excellent ocean survival story that kept me throughly entertained from start to finish. Honestly I couldn't put the book down. This book will change the way you look at your life. After you finish reading it, you won't take the simple things in life for granted anymore. If you enjoy true life adventure and survival books, then I suggest you read this one, it's excellent.

I started reading this book because I wanted a great adventure story. This is not an adventure story. This is on the edge of death pure human suffering. Callahan is a very skilled seaman and very lucky man. His story is riveting and told very well. His story is so interesting, his writing skill, though quite good, really isn't necessary to read the book cover to cover. This book has many places where you want to sit down and cry with the man. I'm really tempted to give five stars, but I really wanted more information about his readjustment when he got back to land, but it ended fairly abruptly. Still, I feel I know Callahan's Dorado fish, his raft, and his feelings pretty well. He did a great job.

This is an excellent,totally engrossing account of the author's quest to survive alone on the open seas for 76 days with a minimum of equipment and supplies. This is a real page-turner and is difficult to put down. Callahan faced his plight with a lot of courage, inventiveness and even humor. The parts dealing with him fighting off his shark companions are often quite funy. An excellent book for any fan of true-life adventures. Highly recommended

I'm an avid sailor, but I've never been out of sight of land. This memoir offers a lucid first hand glimpse of life adrift in the middle of the Atlantic, literally thousands of miles from salvation. Callahan captures the highs and lows of his 76 day ordeal in simple, sparse prose that focuses largely on his daily struggle to distill fresh water and catch fish with rapidly failing equipment in sweltering heat and choppy seas. Did I mention the periodic shark encounters? All in all, this is a gripping tale that left me feeling quite grateful for the myriad modern conveniences that we all take for granted. Somehow Callahan's daily intimacy with basic survival also left me longing for a simpler life, one with fewer proxies standing between me and my basic needs.

I read this book in just a couple of sittings. Obviously, you know that somehow he survives, or the book wouldn't have been written- yet you often find yourself thinking "Well, that's it. No one could survive this setback." But somehow he does. And I could relate closely to the way he had the time to look inside, and see his life in a different way, having once spent seventy-nine days immobilized in a cast. An incredible story. Buy the book.

Steven Callahan is a blessed man. This true story is one of the most harrowing accounts of survival in a truly hopeless situation. He capsizes in minutes in the middle of the night with a raft and not much more. Nobody knows he's missing. No one is looking for him.

Told with desperation and some much needed occasional humor, Callahan paints a story so real and frought with fear that you can read it in one sitting. It is difficult to imagine what one would do in a similiar situation and the very thought of it is spine tingling.

This is a tale for every person who ever took to the water and every adventurer who feels safe in thier environment. You will never take the ocean for granted again after reading this book.

Steven Callahan's "Adrift" is an exciting and intellectually deep tale of one man's survival. When bad weather arises, a storm turns Steven's sailboat upside down. Watching his dreams go under, Steven readies himself and few supplies onto an inflatable life-raft, and prepares for a journey that will change his life forever. Fighting off dehydration, starvation, and even sharks, Callahan struggles to stay alive, and finds new meaning to what being "alive" really means. Seventy-six days pass, as well as many ships that miss him, before the author finds his place in nature, and ultimately, the key to survival. "Amazing" is an understatement to Callahan's writing. Whether you're a sailor, fisherman, or any other outdoorsman, this is the book for you!

This book is riveting. I could not put it down. Each page makes you want to read the next with out stopping until the end. I found myself saying " What happens next? What else could go wrong? How will he solve this new problem?" It does give you a new perspective on life. I think that if he could perservere throught all this, that any problems we encounter in our daily lives are not insurmountable. I've read this book four times in 14 years and will read it many more times without a doubt.