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Books > Fiction > True stories > Endurance & survival
'Poetically written, absorbing, harrowing' The Times 'The raw and
emotional account of an optician whose family fishing trip suddenly
placed him amid the human tragedy of hundreds of drowning migrants
is a story that needed to be told' Fiona Wilson, The Times 'An
important book ... I cried all the way through' Tracy Chevalier
From an award-winning BBC journalist, this moving book turns the
testimony of an accidental hero into a timeless story about human
fellowship and the awakening of courage and conscience. 'I can
hardly begin to describe to you what I saw as our boat approached
the source of that terrible noise. I hardly want to. You won't
understand because you weren't there. You can't understand. You
see, I thought I'd heard seagulls screeching. Seagulls fighting
over a lucky catch. Birds. Just birds.' Emma-Jane Kirby has
reported extensively on the reality of mass migration today. In The
Optician of Lampedusa she brings to life the moving testimony of an
ordinary man whose late summer boat trip off a Sicilian island
unexpectedly turns into a tragic rescue mission.
'Inspiring and very moving. A hero on so many levels' Bear Grylls
'The astonishing journey ... and the service dog that helped him
recover ... A tale that will inspire and amaze' Waterstones.com
When special forces soldier Jason Morgan awoke from a months-long
coma, he was told he'd never walk again. Discovered face-down in a
Central American swamp after a jungle mission gone wrong, he had a
smashed spine,collapsed lungs and countless broken bones. It was a
miracle he'd even survived. Months of painful surgery followed,
with Jason's life balanced on a knife-edge. Released from hospital
in a wheelchair and plagued by memory loss, Jason's life fell
apart. Left alone to raise his three infant sons, all hope seemed
gone,until Jason met Napal, a handsome-as-hell black Labrador
provided by a very special charity. With this one incredible dog at
their side, Jason's life and that of his family would never be the
same again. With Napal's help Jason was able to conquer his
paralysis, eventually completing a marathon and winning numerous
medals in the Wounded Warrior Games. More than that, this amazing
service dog helped heal a family and taught Jason to be the father
his kids needed him to be. A Dog Called Hope is the moving and
heart-warming story of how Jason rediscovered his life's mission,
his strength as a father and, through his beloved dog, his hope.
It's the story of the closeness between one man and one dog like no
other, and how this mesmerizing duo changed countless lives.
Inspirational, tear-jerking and laugh-out-loud uplifting, this is a
story that will brighten any day and warm every heart.
Paul Nazaroff was the ringleader of a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia in 1918. Declared 'the most dangerous counter-revolutionary at large in the Tashkent region' thus began an extraordinary catalogue of adventures with hair-breadth 'scapes and survival against all odds. Forced to live the life of a hunted animal his escape led him right across Central Asia, over the Himalayas to the plains of Hindustan.
Aisling Creegan's childhood was dominated by an abusive, alcoholic
mother, who tortured her at every turn. From insults through
beatings and being threatened with a butcher's knife, Aisling
endured unthinkable suffering at the hands of the woman who should
have loved her unconditionally. Yet in the midst of this trauma,
Aisling was able to rely on the one person she knew she could trust
- herself. Possessed of an incredible imagination and remarkable
resilience, Aisling found escape in the little things in life:
lying in a field on a sunny day; drawing; Matchbox cars; and her
teddy bear, Panda. Aisling's power to imagine an alternative world
enabled her to hold on and make it to adolescence and the freedom
she had longed for since childhood. But the scars of the past take
time to heal, and when Aisling suffered a breakdown it took her on
a surprising path to freedom - and forgiveness. I Am Someone is an
extraordinary memoir about female cruelty, and ultimately female
strength and endurance. 'Searingly honest ... brings you straight
into the inner world of someone pushed to the limits' Lynn Ruane
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an extraordinary
story of redemption in the darkest of places. Jarvis Jay Masters's
early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born
in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack,
alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He
and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was
five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft,
armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was
set up for the murder of a guard - a conviction which landed him on
death row, where he's been since 1990. At the time of his murder
trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and
anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A
criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing
exercises which he repeatedly refused, until desperation moved him.
With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters's gradual but
profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to
one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counselled high
school kids by mail, and helped prisoners -and even guards - find
meaning in their lives. Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the
Buddhist principles - compassion, sacrifice, and living in the
moment -and gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide. And while
he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he shows us all
how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds
us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.
The Dive is a thrilling narrative nonfiction in the tradition of
The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13. They were out of their depth, out
of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a
crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air
to survive for two days. On the ocean's surface there was a hastily
assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic.
The world held its breath to await word of a rescue. In a routine
dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the
Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a
catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and
Roger Mallinson's mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed
almost half a mile below. The crippled sub and its crew were
trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They
had just two days' worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the
best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three
days' time. The Dive is brilliantly researched by veteran
journalist Stephen McGinty. Stephen adeptly reconstructs the race
against time as Britain, America and Canada pooled their resources
into a 'Brotherhood of the Sea' dedicated to stopping the ocean
depths claiming two of their own. Based on previously undisclosed
records, maritime logbooks, and exclusive interviews with all the
key participants, The Dive takes the reader on an emotional and
thrilling ride from the depths of defeat to a glimpse of the
sun-dappled surface.
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