Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea

This is the fascinating story of a resourceful sailor who drifted in a life raft across the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike other adventurers who have chronicled solo transoceanic journeys (Joshua Slocum, Thor Heyerdahl, Alain Bombard, William Willis, etc.), his journey was unplanned. After the sudden sinking of his sailboat, he had to hurriedly abandon ship into an inflatable life raft with whatever supplies he could snatch. His seventy-six day ordeal takes place in this constantly leaking raft too small to accommodate his full body length. He knows from the outset that his food and water supplies are inadequate. His story of survival thus becomes not one of simple endurance, but a confrontation of many external and internal challenges ranging from securing food and water to dealing with isolation and despair. He meets these with remarkable ingenuity and determination. Forced into introspection that borders on the mystical at times, his reflections on how his mindset and personal characteristics responded to these challenges make for as fascinating an inner journey as the one his body endured. This is what separates this from most adventure stories, and why I think it will endure as a classic of the genre.

I found I could barely put the book down! Seventy-six days so seemingly similar, yet Steven's descriptions of his challenges, successes and failures are endlessly fascinating to contemplate. To "hell and back" repeatedly day after day; it blew me away!

This book is inspirational! Make me realizing how good it is to be alive. I got hook after I pick up this book and finished read it in one day.

Steven Callahan wrote in his story that he just want to "eat and drink" and nothing else. Through the story he realized how humbled human being is compared with mother nature, how simple things(food, water, and sleep) in life can be so important.

I was expecting he wrote more toward the end of the book. It seems to me that he scrambled the last couple chapters and push the book on the shelf.

This book is beautifully written. It has all the beauty and depth of the book by Martin Yann with the added benefit of being true. I enjoyed the sequential details of physical and mental survival. It is a worthy addition to the great genre of Coleridge and his Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is clear the author was transformed by the experience. It is generous for him to share the event in such a way that others can vicariously share.

did Yann Martel crib heavily from this 1986 New York Times 39-week bestseller? if so, forgiveness is possible: a narration is a narration and a novel a novel. still, Callahan was also a Philosophy major. and his life of solitude on the ocean contains the grains of choice as well, which doesn't subtract from the intellectual perfection of this work. 4/5

After becoming interested in survival I came across this story and discovered a book about it. I decided to purchase the book and wasn't disappointed. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in survival or even to those looking for a good read in general.

Callahan paints an excellent picture of the sea, its beauty, residents, and its untamed heartlessness. The found companionship that many sailors seem to find in the ocean is really felt throughout these pages.

This was a great book. I particularly liked the parts where he described and depicted how he jury-rigged his equipment to catch fish, collect water, etc. He had to manage with only a few supplies that he was able to collect from his beloved boat “Solo” before it sank. Even though I knew how it ended I couldn’t put it down. I would recommend getting the actual book and not putting it on Kindle because it is full of the authors wonderful drawings and maps. R. Wood

What a great story. I could hardly put it down. Near the end, there was a string of punctuation omissions, namely periods, that was a bit distracting, but the story was so compelling that I was able to ignore it. A must read for sure!

Having heard a small portion of this book being read previously on Public Radio, I was very eager to read it
in its entirety. As expected, I was not disappointed in the least!
I was particularly impressed and moved, as Callahan fought to stay alive on the sea, that he never lost his respect and love for it and the living things in it.

An amazing story complete with compassion for the fish that had to be caught for the author's own survival after his beloved ship wrecked. All kinds of emotions here, even some humor, left no doubt of what kind of man this author is.

Awesome book!!!! Keeps you captivated throughout the entire book. Callahan is a very detailed, excellent writer. I've read this book 3 times now over the course of some years and I'm sure I will read it again!

I read this book while going through some trauma of my own--more psychological survival than physical in my case--and I found that the lessons were still applicable. It's well written. Even though I'm an exhausted mom I stayed up at night reading it.

this book is incredible. I finished it in 2 days. I have past it around to 3 people and they love it. The man is from our area and it made it more exciting. I don't know how it made it alive at sea for 76 days.

We can sometimes live our life, thinking we have it tough, but it isn't until something traumatic, life threatening,earth shattering,that crumbles your very core,makes you see yourself in the real light of life. This book I would recommend to all to read,this is my second time reading it, and will again.

To understand what a person goes through in an ordeal is impossible, but we get a glimpse of how the will to survive and the resources that we have are revealed to us when we have no choice but to go forward with no escape insight.

Not only the story was suspenseful and interesting to read, it also was exceptionally well written. The prose felt like music to my ears. The novel also contain philosophical elements which made for a deeper and thoughtful read.

I liked the way Callahan's shared what happened to him .........no heroics, just the unvarnished way he felt, and how he improvised to repair and create equipment that enabled him to survive.

Definitely a 5 Star book!!!

PGWhite..........Birmingham, AL

I absolutely adored this book! Not only does he talk about his basic survival techniques but he adds info about the fish and other creatures and even has diagrams drawn to show you what he's talking about (and trust me, sometimes it's not easy to draw your own picture). I even like the little map in the front and the ending is tied together well. It wasn't as cheesy as some others. This was exactly the sort of adventure book I was looking for!

I think Steven Callahan is an amazing person to have survived so long at sea.
It was a good book but somehow I can't say I was totally gripped by it though I appreciate how difficult it must have been to fill a book with a subject matter like this.

The thing I found most fascinating after his amazing survival was his interaction with the fish that surrounded him they became characters in book that otherwise would have only one - him. The relationship was necessary to him in both social and primal way. He needed their company and he needed to eat them. In a way I was a little disappointed that it wasn't explored further and I would have loved to hear his own take on the relationship in the aftermath of his rescue.

This is an amazing story of preparation, resourcefulness, and mental and physical grit. Lots of lessons about the power of the human spirit and how someone kept his head in an utterly desperate situation. Really well written.

Great story... Puts you right there with him. An excellent portrayal of determination against all probability. At times it was a bit monotonous (thus the four stars)... Couldn't take much more about the Doradas (fish)... But I do recommend this read.