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  • General Recommendations
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Survival Stories

Stories of survival in times of war, in times of exploration, and natural disaster.

User from Greenwich Library

20 items

  • A Marriage at Sea

    a True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

    Elmhirst, Sophie
    The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.
    Book, 2025New York : Riverhead Books, 2025. — 910.9164 BAILE ELMHI
  • In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to…
    Book, 2025New York : St. Martin's Press, 2025. — 784.2092 SEBBA
  • The Cave

    a Secret Underground Hospital and One Woman's Story of Survival in Syria

    Ballour, Amani,
    This searing memoir tells the story of a young doctor and activist who ran an underground hospital in Syria.
    Book, 2024Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, [2024] — 610.92 BALLO BALLO
  • Against All Odds

    a True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II

    Kershaw, Alex,
    This is the harrowing tale of four Medal of Honor recipients. Through Alex Kershaw we learn the stories of these men. Tapping into personal interviews and a wealth of primary source material, Alex Kershaw has delivered his most gripping account yet…
    Book, 2022New York : Dutton Caliber, [2022] — 940.5481 KERSH
  • N-4 Down

    the Hunt for the Arctic Airship Italia

    Piesing, Mark
    Truly, a hidden gem, just like Umberto Nobile’s journal, which the author finds in a secondhand bookstore, titled With the Italia to the North Pole.
    Book, 2021New York, NY : Custom House, [2021] — 919.804 PIESI
  • Into the Forest

    a Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love

    Frankel, Rebecca,
    Into the Forest is a gripping story of love, escape, and survival, from wartime Poland. In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest.
    Book, 2021New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021. — 940.5318 RABIN FRANK
  • Memoirs of a Kamikaze

    a World War II Pilot's Story of Survival, Honor and Reconciliation

    Odachi, Kazuo,
    This book offers a new perspective on these infamous suicide pilots. It is not a chronicle of war, nor is it a collection of research papers compiled by scholars. It is a transcript of Odachi's words.
    Book, 2020Clarendon : Tuttle Publishing, 2020. — 940.5449 ODACH ODACH
  • Tap Code

    the Epic Survival Tale of a Vietnam POW and the Secret Code That Changed Everything : a True Story

    Harris, Carlyle (Colonel),
    It was Carlyle “Smitty” Harris that taught the Tap Code an old, long-unused World War II method of communication--to many POWs. In turn, they taught others, and it quickly became a way for POWs to communicate without their captors' knowledge. It was…
    Book, 2019[Grand Rapids, Michigan] : Zondervan, [2019] — 959.7043 HARRI
  • A Speck in the Sea

    a Story of Survival and Rescue

    Aldridge, John,
    This story begins in the dead of night, on July 24, 2013, John Aldridge was thrown off the back of the Anna Mary while his fishing partner, Anthony Sosinski, slept below. As desperate hours ticked by, Sosinski, the families, the local fishing…
    Book, 2017New York, NY : Weinstein Books, [2017] — 613.69 ALDRI ALDRI
  • 438 Days

    An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

    Franklin, Jonathan, 1964-
    The miraculous account of the Salvador Alvarenga who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history. For fourteen months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks, and had to adapt to stay alive.
    Book, 2015New York : Atria Books, 2015. — 910.9164 ALVAR FRANK
  • The Revenant

    a Novel of Revenge

    Punke, Michael
    This is the fictional account of Hugh Glass. He was on an expedition and was attacked by a bear. Glass was close to death, two men that were assigned to stay with him until he passed away, left him to die alone. They left him with nothing. He does…
    Book, 2015New York : Picador, 2015. — FICTION PUNKE...M
  • 81 Days Below Zero

    the Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness

    Murphy, Brian, 1959-
    Shortly before Christmas in 1943, five Army aviators left Alaska's Ladd Field on a test flight. Only one ever returned: Leon Crane, a city kid from Philadelphia with little more than a parachute on his back when he bailed from his B-24 Liberator…
    Book, 2015Boston, MA : Da Capo Press, 2015. — 940.5449 CRANE MURPH
  • No Better Friend

    One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII

    Weintraub, Robert
    This is a story of Royal Air Force technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, who met in an internment camp during WWII. Their story of an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstance is one of the great undiscovered sagas of World…
    Book, 2015New York : Little Brown & Co, 2015. — 940.5472 WEINT
  • Alone on the Ice

    the Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration

    Roberts, David, 1943-2021
    The downloable audiobook version of the incredible tale of Douglas Mawson, and his survival in the Antarctic.
    Downloadable Audiobook, 2013[Ashland, Or.] : Blackstone Audio, Inc., [2013] — DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOK
  • The story of an infant born at sea highlights the efforts of crew people and passengers to secure the survival of Irish citizens fleeing from the potato famine through acts of heroism and human decency.
    Book, 2013New York : Free Press, 2013. — 941.5081 MILES
  • Miracles on the Water

    the Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-boat Attack

    Nagorski, Tom, 1962-
    Based on eyewitness accounts, a chronicle of survival at sea describes the German submarine attack on the passenger liner S.S. City of Benares, a ship carrying ninety children from war-ravaged Britain to the safety of Canada.
    Book, 2006New York : Hyperion, [2006] — 940.5429 NAGOR
  • The Great Deluge

    Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

    Brinkley, Douglas
    In The Great Deluge Brinkley has the Katrina survivors tell their own stories, masterly allowing them to record the nightmare that was Katrina. The Great Deluge investigates the failure of government at every level and breaks important new stories.…
    Book, 2006New York : Morrow, 2006. — 976.335 BRINK
  • Ada Blackjack

    a True Story of Survival in the Atlantic

    Niven, Jennifer
    This is the amazing story of a young Inuit woman named Ada Blackjack and her four male companions who try to colonize a remote, desolate island. Her four associates die. The book then becomes a story of her struggle to survive, and her return to…
    Book, 2003New York : Hyperion, 2003. — 915.77 BLACK NIVEN
  • Mawson's Will

    the Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written

    Bickel, Lennard
    Douglas Mawson survived weeks in Antarctica alone. Mawson faced some of the most daunting conditions ever known to man: blistering wind, snow, and cold; the loss of his companion, dogs, supplies, and even the skin on his hands and feet. But despite…
    Book, 2000South Royalton, Vt. : Steerforth Press, [2000] — 919.8904 MAWSO BICKE
  • Into Thin Air

    a Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

    Krakauer, Jon
    In this story the author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mt. Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers and explains why he survived.
    Book, 1997New York : Villard Books, [1997] — 796.522 KRAKA