Back From the Brink

From Homer’s Odyssey to Apollo 13, stories of people who have faced calamity and survived have always had enormous appeal. When the stories are true, and told by the survivors themselves, our sympathy and admiration are all the more engaged. Join us for a discussion of four first-person narratives of men and women who were brought to the brink of life and death, and lived to tell the tale to us.

Readings:

The Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea, Steven Callahan

Untamed Seas: One Woman’s True Story of Shipwreck & Survival, Deborah Scaling & Meg Noonan

Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole, Jerri Nielsen