Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free Audiobook

Quotes

• “Héctor Tobar takes us so far down into the story and lives of the Chilean miners that his reconstruction of a workplace disaster becomes a riveting meditation on universal human themes. Deep Down Dark is an extraordinary piece of work.”

  — George Packer, New York Times bestselling author of The Unwinding

• “An account that brims with emotion and strength.”

  — USA Today

• “Weaving together the drama of the miners’ harrowing ordeal below ground with the anguish of families and rescuers on the surface, Tobar delivers a masterful account of exile and human longing, of triumph in the face of all odds. Taut with suspense and moments of tenderness and replete with a cast of unforgettable characters, Deep Down Dark ranks with the best of adventure literature.”

  — Los Angeles Times

• “As Tobar works his way through each miner’s recovery, the TV headlines recede from our memory and a more delicate series of portraits emerges.”

  — Washington Post

• “Masterful.”

  — Boston Globe

• “Extraordinary…A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, [Tobar] combines a historian’s eye for context with a gifted storyteller’s ear for minor-key character traits…Though it boasts the epic sweep of a man-against-nature saga, Deep Down Dark also happens to be an endlessly satisfying ensemble drama…Scary, sad, and, yes, even funny…A great book.”

  — San Francisco Chronicle

• “A superb book.”

  — Dallas Morning News

• “A gripping narrative, taut to the point of explosion.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• “In this masterful dissection of the 2010’s dramatic sixty-nine day ordeal by thirty-three trapped Chilean miners, Héctor Tobar weaves a suspenseful narrative that moves back and forth between the waking nightmares of the buried men, and those of their families on the earth’s surface. In Deep Down Dark, Héctor Tobar takes us deftly to the very cliff-edge of human survival.”

  — Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

• “It’s almost hard to believe that Héctor Tobar wasn’t himself one of the trapped Chilean miners, so vivid, immediate, terrifying, emotional, and convincing is his Homeric narration of this extraordinary incident. Deep Down Dark is a literary masterpiece of narrative journalism, surgical in its reconstruction, novelistic in its explorations of human personality and nuance. In a manner that feels spiritual, Tobar puts himself at the service of his story, and his fidelity to and unquenchable curiosity about every fact and detail generates unforgettable wonderment and awe.”

  — Francisco Goldman, award-winning author of Say Her Name

• “In a clear, unemotional voice, Henry Leyva narrates the story of the thirty-three miners who were trapped…Using subtle accents, Leyva draws listeners into the horror of miners trapped deep in the dark, winding tunnels. Switching effortlessly from English to Spanish and back, Leyva’s performance is riveting as scenes shift from inside to outside, from mine offices to the tunnels. Each word builds the tension of the chilling disaster and the nail-biting rescue of men buried more than five miles below the surface.”

  — AudioFile

• “Weaving together the drama of the miners' harrowing ordeal below ground with the anguish of families and rescuers on the surface, Tobar delivers a masterful account of exile and human longing, of triumph in the face of all odds. Taut with suspense and moments of tenderness and replete with a cast of unforgettable characters, Deep Down Dark ranks with the best of adventure literature.

  — Scott Wallace, The Los Angeles Times

• A riveting account of a remarkable disaster.

  — Larry Getlan, The New York Post

• Chiseled, brooding . . . As Tobar works his way through each miner's recovery, the TV headlines recede from our memory, and a more delicate series of portraits emerges.

  — Noah Gallagher Shannon, The Washington Post

• An account that brims with emotion and strength.

  — Ray Lockery, USA Today

• Tobar plunges the reader into this world of uncertainty with visceral, present-tense prose and careful pacing . . . Whether the story is completely new to you, or if you were one of the millions glued to the news reports and wondering, will they make it--physically, emotionally, spiritually--you'll be greatly rewarded to learn how they did.

  — Mac McClelland, The New York Times Book Review

• A superb book.

  — Steve Weinberg, Dallas Morning News

• Extraordinary . . . A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, [Tobar] combines a historian's eye for context with a gifted storyteller's ear for minor-key character traits . . . Though it boasts the epic sweep of a man-against-nature saga, Deep Down Dark also happens to be an endlessly satisfying ensemble drama . . . Scary, sad and, yes, even funny . . . a great book.

  — Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

• Breathtaking . . . an absolute masterpiece of geological horror.

  — Geoff Manaugh, BLDG Blog

• A nonfiction account with the elemental heft of myth and fable.

  — Nick Romeo, Christian Science Monitor

• Masterful.

  — Wendy Smith, The Boston Globe

• A gift of a book: vivid, honest, and true.

  — Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire

• The best book I've read all year . . . Riveting . . . A masterpiece of compassion.

  — Ann Patchett

• Harrowing and deeply moving.

  — BookPage

• A gripping narrative, taut to the point of explosion.

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• If Dante's Inferno was a real place, it would look and feel like the subterranean fever dream Héctor Tobar describes in Deep Down Dark. Taking us into the post-apocalyptic landscape of Chile's Atacama Desert and guiding us through the labyrinthine hell of the world's most famous mine accident, Tobar's taut narrative plumbs the depths not only of the mine itself, but of the 33 trapped miners' hearts and souls as they fight for life, and reconcile themselves--first, to death, and then to the far more challenging task of surviving. This revelatory tale of ordinary men surviving under extraordinary circumstances is further proof that we are living in a golden age of nonfiction.

  — John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce and The Tiger

• Héctor Tobar takes us so far down into the story and lives of the Chilean miners that his reconstruction of a workplace disaster becomes a riveting meditation on universal human themes. Deep Down Dark is an extraordinary piece of work.

  — George Packer, author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

• In this masterful dissection of the 2010's dramatic sixty-nine day ordeal by thirty-three trapped Chilean miners, Héctor Tobar weaves a suspenseful narrative that moves back and forth between the waking nightmares of the buried men, and those of their families on the earth's surface. In Deep Down Dark, Héctor Tobar takes us deftly to the very cliff-edge of human survival.

  — Jon Lee Anderson

• It's almost hard to believe that Héctor Tobar wasn't himself one of the trapped Chilean miners, so vivid, immediate, terrifying, emotional, and convincing is his Homeric narration of this extraordinary incident. Deep Down Dark is a literary masterpiece of narrative journalism, surgical in its reconstruction, novelistic in its explorations of human personality and nuance. In a manner that feels spiritual, Tobar puts himself at the service of his story, and his fidelity to and unquenchable curiosity about every fact and detail generates unforgettable wonderment and awe.

  — Francisco Goldman