Out of the Silence: After the Crash

Written by Eduardo Strauch and Mireya Soriano

Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

A personal story of survival, hope, and spiritual awakening in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

It’s the unfathomable modern legend that has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit: the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy-two days among the dead and dying. It was a harrowing test of endurance on a snowbound cordillera that ended in a miraculous rescue. Now comes the unflinching and emotional true story by one of the men who found his way home.

Four decades after the tragedy, a climber discovered survivor Eduardo Strauch’s wallet near the memorialized crash site and returned it to him. It was a gesture that compelled Strauch to finally “break the silence of the mountains.”

In this revelatory and rewarding memoir, Strauch withholds nothing as he reveals the truth behind the life-changing events that challenged him physically and tested him spiritually, but would never destroy him. In revisiting the horror story we thought we knew, Strauch shares the lessons gleaned from far outside the realm of rational learning: how surviving on the mountain, in the face of its fierce, unforgiving power and desolate beauty, forever altered his perception of love, friendship, death, fear, loss, and hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Jennie Erikson
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781721364947

Eduardo Strauch

Eduardo Strauch Urioste was born in 1947 in Montevideo, Uruguay. In 1968 he opened an architectural studio with his best friend from childhood, Marcelo Pérez. He has worked as an architect and painter, and for many years he has lectured about his experience surviving seventy-two days in the Andes after the legendary 1972 plane crash on the Chilean-Argentine border. He is married to Laura Braga; they have five children and live in Montevideo.

Reviews for Out of the Silence

[Diane Severson Mori · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not so much about the crash itself, since at about 50% they are rescued. But rather, this book is about the spiritual transformation of the author as a result of having spent 72 days above the Snow line in The Andes, And how that experience changed his life forever.

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read a book about this 1972 plane crash when I was in high school, so it was interesting to read this book by a survivor of the crash, having lived 72 days in the Andes. The author reflects on many things and the lessons he learned through his experience.

[sami juutinen · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Fair enough, one way to look at a very dramatic experience. But why such melodrama? Did not make it to the end.

[foof2you · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The powerful story of Eduardo Strauch one of the survivors of the plane crash in the Andes in 1972. It wasn't until 2006, when I hiker found some of the authors personal belongings near the crash site that Strauch decide it was time to tell his story on the mountain after the crash. it is a powerful story about loss and what he found on the mountain.

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Strauch is one of the survivors of the Uruguay plane crash in the Andes of 1972. Twenty-five years old at the time, Strauch and his cousins and friends remained in the fuselage of a broken plane on the snow covered mountainside for 72 days, eventually having to eat the dead.This account was written decades after the fact, but Strauch's recollection of some of the particulars are as clear as you'd expect from such a life-altering occurrence. Though the rugby team was from a religious school and every account I've read talks about the group's reliance on prayer, his story features more religious and philosophical ponders than other accounts, but then he's a much older man. He also discusses the love and kindness these survivors showed to each other, that they worked hard as a group to ensure as many survived as possible. This story also goes on after the group's rescue and discusses what life was like after they were home, which had its own struggles.