The Most Incredible True Story I’ve Ever Read

Imagine you’re on a plane.

You’re on a flight with your friends, your mom, your sister, and some other passengers.

You’re flying over one of the highest mountain ranges in the world when the flight attendant tells you to fasten your seatbelt.

“There’s going to be some turbulence ahead,” he says.

A moment later, the plane dips violently sideways.

It then starts bobbing and bouncing around.

Your mom was reading a book, but she’s now putting it away. She looks worried. Your sister looks worried.

You look out the window and wonder if you’re supposed to be flying so close to the mountains.

The fuselage is vibrating uncontrollably, and it doesn’t feel like you’re on a plane anymore; it feels like you’re on a roller coaster that’s gone mad.

Everybody around you is screaming in fear.

The engines of the aeroplane are screaming too.

Before you can speak, the plane hits the rocky side of the mountain and then…SKRRAAAANG, its tail snaps off.

Some passengers get sucked out of the fuselage and fly away into the freezing air.

You see the open sky above you.

You can’t make sense of anything.

Everything is happening in a heartbeat.

You don’t know, but the fuselage is now sliding down a snowy slope at a very high speed, and in less than a second, you’re torn from your seat and hurled forward into the darkness and silence.

Are you dead?

No. Four days later, you wake up. It’s cold, and you’re shivering.

When you open your eyes, one of your friends tells you what happened: the plane crashed in the mountains and many of your friends died.

Your mom died.

“Where’s my sister?” you ask. “Is she alright?”

Your friend tells you she’s alive, but she’s hurt very badly.

Soon you learn you’re trapped at 3,660 meters (12,020 feet) on the longest mountain range in the world, a frozen desert where there’s no food, no vegetation, no civilisation.

Around you there’s nothing but snow, ice, and rocks.

You’re wearing summer clothes in a place where temperatures drop to minus 30°C. The radio system of the plane broke during the impact, so you and the other survivors are cut off from the rest of the world.

If you don’t want to die of starvation, your only option is to eat the bodies of your dead friends. Worst of all, you might even have to let the other survivors eat the flesh of your mom, whose body is lying there, under a merciless sun on a bed made of snow.

Stop imagining now.

Everything I’ve described actually happened in 1972 in South America.

Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado tells the most incredible and inspiring true story I’ve ever read in my life.

The Book and the Movies

Parrado is one of the 16 people who made it out alive after 72 days in what’s probably the most inhospitable environment on this planet.

I was 6 years old when I first learned about his story. I discovered it in 1993 thanks to “Alive,” a Hollywood movie I loved when I was a kid.

Last month, I was getting bored on Netflix when I stumbled upon a movie from 2023 titled “Society of the Snow.”

I can’t believe this, I thought. This is the modern version of “Alive”!

I hardly ever rewatch films, but I’ve already watched “Society of the Snow” twice. I’ve also rented “Alive” and rewatched that too.

And then I bought Nando Parrado’s memoir.

In a way, this is the ultimate self-help book.

The Most Important Lesson (for me)

The following are my main takeaways from Parrado’s story; they might not necessarily be what the writer wanted to teach me.

1. Don’t be afraid to suffer to achieve your goals.
2. Just because you’re prepared to suffer doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. Many of the passengers were ready to suffer and endure the most horrible living conditions. They would have given their life to survive another day. How come they didn’t make it home? There are forces in this universe we cannot bend, no matter how determined and strong we are.
3. Don’t waste a single breath. Don’t waste your strength on things you cannot change. The plane crashed. Your dear ones are dead. It’s hard, but you have no choice but to move on.
4. When life abandons you in the darkest darkness, it’s up to you to find the light that will bring you out of the dark.
5. God is not what most people think. A few days after the crash, Arturo, one of Parrado’s friends, asked him, “How can you be so sure that of all the sacred books in the world, the one that you were taught to believe in is the only authentic word of God?” I read this question 3 times while I was reading the book. I personally don’t believe in God. I’m agnostic, and this book didn’t make me change my mind about my beliefs. However, these 291 pages offered me a more refined, less ideological, less human-centred view of God, one that even a non-religious person like me wouldn’t find hard to accept.
6. To survive, we humans can get used to anything. We can be incredible.
7. No matter how laser-focused, expert, motivated, passionate, strong, or hard-working you are, you can’t make it alone. You’ll always need others to help you, and if you want to get where you want to get, you must help others as well.
8. Life has meaning. Part of that meaning is death.

All the books I’ve read about life in nazi concentration camps showed me the worst side of humanity. Those memoirs made me wonder how we could ever be so cruel.

Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado showed me our best side.

This is one of the 10 best books I have on my shelf, and I can’t recommend it enough.