Deep Down Dark: The Untold Story of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Hector Tobar

If you were alive in August 2010, you heard about the collapse of the San Jose Mine in Chile which trapped thirty-three miners for sixty-nine days. The above ground rescue efforts were exhaustively covered by the media, but what actually happened thousands of feet below ground during that time?

With exclusive access to the survivors,  Hector Tobar tells the miners’ story of those dark sixty-nine days. 

I am a bit claustrophobic so I was reluctant to read a book about being buried alive by a 770,000 ton block of stone, but how these ordinary men  triumph over the daunting physical challenges (starvation, full body funguses, heat) and the equally harsh mental challenges is riveting and inspiring.

Tobar’s prose is more serviceable than lyrical, but the story doesn’t need much embellishment.

WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS THINK

Ann Patchett: “I more-than-love this book. Maybe it’s the story, which somehow manages to be a gut wrenching cliffhanger even though we know exactly how it’s going to end…Maybe it’s the willingness to take on all the big issues-the value of a human life, the tests of character, the persistent hopes for God…  Make sure you’re in a comfortable place when you start reading because it’s going to be very hard to stop.”

WHO WROTE IT?

Hector Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a novelist who was collectively selected by the miners to tell their story.