Deep down dark: The untold stories of 33 men buried in a Chilean mine and the miracle that set them free, by Hector Tobar

I approached this book somewhat unwillingly (it was chosen by my book club) as it sounded like a subject more suited to a long magazine article.  And, in fact, a large portion of it did appear in the New Yorker.  However, despite knowing how the story ended – with all rescued after surviving 69 days deep underground – I found it hard to put down.  Although food, clean water and medicine, as well as established audio and video contact with the outside world, saved them from certain death after 17 days of starvation, they were far from “saved” from the ever shifting mountain they were trapped under until almost two months later.  Early on, they forged a pact, which held, to band together to tell their story if they were rescued and to equally share any fame or fortune.  How this disparate group of men, some with little education, most very poor, and all dependent on the mine for their families’ survival, managed to stay both sane and for the most part mutually supportive is the amazing part of the story.  309 pp.