This was a meticulously rendered account of the 69 days the 33 miners were trapped in the San Jose mine in Chile. Each man has something of his tenure there highlighted. How they got there and what separated them from the surface, their daily decisions, their despair, faith and physical conditions are all explored. Before leaving their potential tomb they agreed not to speak of their 17 days before discovery except as a unit. Although there were some minor lapses this is their official story. Once it was discovered they were all alive and the rescue began a different kind of despair overcame them. Though they were getting food and medical attention psychologically they were fragile. The book also follows the rescuers, their attempts, failures and final success. It then covers the aftermath, the publicity, celebrity and physical and mental recovery. I think Tobar did a great job defining the miners and their families, the mine administrators, government officials and rescuers. I felt I got a true picture of this disaster and everyone involved. ( )

Not my usual sort of book, but this was a very well written and well researched book about the miners of the Chilean mine rescue 12 or so years ago. Thirty-three miners were stuck in the lower portion of a mine after a sudden collapse, communications were completely cut off, and they had very little food. But all 33 were rescued from the mine, many weeks later. You learn a little about Chile, a little about mining, and a lot about the men and their families. As I mentioned I don’t usually read this kind of book but I think the author (an LA Times journalist) did an excellent job. ( )

This accounting of the 2010 Chilean mine collapse that trapped 33 men under a rock the size of a skyscraper started off very slowly, so slowly that I was tempted to give up about 70 pages in. The author spends a lot of time telling about the lives of the miners before the disaster, which did not pique my interest. However, I prevailed, after talking to someone else in my book club, and glad I did. The story of the rescue is fascinating.

My problem with the book is the dense text, sometimes whole pages without a new paragraph. Who does that? And why? And why didn't the author include diagrams and photos? The only photo is of the 33 men, at the beginning of the book, and I was constantly going back and forth to see which person of 33 he was talking about. Without Google searching and watching the documentary, I would have gotten a lot less out of this story. ( )

Actually listened to this on digital audiobook but couldn't find it so this was close as I could find..Very well done audiobook. ( )

I was glad to learn more about this incident, but I could feel the struggle the author had putting all the threads together. The movie might actually flow better, but I imagine it will lack accuracy. ( )