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by: Franklin, Jonathan

ISBN: 9780399157776 | 0399157778

33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Minersis the riveting and authoritative account of the 2010 San Jos#xE9; mine rescue in Chile-after one of the longest human entrapments in history. With his coveted "Rescue Pass," Franklin was permitted access far past the police perimeter. It would be seventeen long days before the miners were discovered alive and the world press descended. It would be another fifty-two days before the miners were all successfully rescued. For eight weeks, Franklin conducted interviews ... MOREwith families, rescue workers, the mine psychologist, drill operators, scientists, and the architects of the rescue operation. He reported from an improvised office on the mountainside that was the nerve center of the rescue operation, in a makeshift container. Far below, families and loved ones lived in a cluster of tents known as Camp Hope. While the men were still underground, Franklin interviewed them via a crude telephone; he helped send vital supplies to them via the " paloma" (pigeon). And when the first miners were rescued on October 13, Mr. Franklin had the first media contact with the recently freed men in a series of interviews from inside the field hospital. 33 Menreads like a thriller, toggling between the dramatic chaos belowground as the men realized that their escape routes were blocked and that their shelter held only enough rations for ten men to survive seventy-two hours; and the desperate rescue efforts aboveground-the massive campaign from the top level of the Chilean government to enlist and unite brilliant minds from around the world in the San Jos#xE9; rescue effort. In captivating and never-before- revealed detail, Franklin tells a spellbinding story of the improbable survival of the miners, trapped some 2,200 feet underground for sixty-nine days. He also chronicles what had to go right-an impossibly long list-to rescue them all alive. The death-defying rescue demanded endurance, ingenuity, and most of all, unified fronts above and below ground. To be sure, none of this came easily. Based on more than 110 interviews with the miners, their families, and the rescue team, Franklin's account combines an expert eye for detail and dialogue with the remarkable human interest story of these miners struggling to survive in a savage environment.

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Reporter Jonathan Franklin taking notes at Paloma station.

Jonathan Franklin / Addict Village

Faith and Los 33 were never far apart during the rescue of the miners.

Jonathan Franklin / Addict Village

Huge convoys of equipment rolled into Camp Hope nearly every day to help with the rescue.

Ariel Caliban Marinkovic

Tears of joy filled the air when the rescue capsule began saving the lives of the thirty-three men.

Ariel Caliban Marinkovic

On August 5, 2010, at the San José mine in northern Chile, 33 men were entombed 2,300 feet below the earth when a slab of rock the size of a skyscraper sheared off the mountain and sealed shut their only access to the surface. The miners were discovered alive 17 days later, and for the next seven weeks after that discovery, as rescuers sought to bring them to the surface, the eyes of the world shifted to this previously obscure corner of South America. More than 2,000 journalists and reporters flooded in to cover the drama. But despite worldwide interest, the media rarely delved to either the front lines of the rescue or below the surface of the tragedy. Locked behind police lines, most reporters were reduced to months of interviewing family members and politicians. However, award-winning journalist Jonathan Franklin was the exception.

The print journalist with the most extensive access and contacts, Franklin reported, recorded, and filmed from the front row of the operation as it unfolded and, as a result, was afforded unprecedented and unique access to the miners and the rescuers. Now, for the first time ever, he tells their full story in 33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners

Franklin's status as a "local"--he has lived in Chile for 16 years, speaks fluent Spanish, and has six daughters with his Chilean wife--and his 25 years' experience as an investigative reporter provided him access other journalists could only dream of. For almost six weeks he lived on the hillside that served as the rescue operation's nerve center. He sat in on planning meetings, pored over government documents, and recorded sessions between the miners and the psychologists charged with looking after their mental health. He conducted interviews with miners' families, rescue workers, engineers, drill operators, and many others, including President Piñera of Chile. Even before the miners were rescued, while they were still underground, Franklin interviewed them via a makeshift phone that connected them to the surface. "I sat in this container where you could pick up a phone, dial eleven, and the phone would ring down below," says Franklin, who developed such a bond of trust with the miners that they described in great detail the dramatic first 17 days of their confinement. Cut off from the outside...

Jonathan Franklin has lived in Chile for more than fifteen years, twelve of those as The Guardian (UK) correspondent for Chile.

Granted a Rescue Team credential at the site of the Chilean mine disaster, his dispatches ran in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer (UK) and The Sydney Morning Herald.   As cameraman at the mine, he filmed exclusive footage for ABC News, CNN International, Univision and the Discovery Channel.

Fluent in Spanish, Franklin has covered events ranging from the arrest of Augusto Pinochet to the inner workings of the cocaine trade during his years in South America.  His features are regularly published in GQ, Esquire, Marie Claire, Playboy and many other magazines.  As cofounder of www.AddictVillage.com, Mr. Franklin travels throughout Latin America to produce reports for magazines and newspapers worldwide. His investigative reporting has been used by ABC’s Nightline, CBS’s 60 Minutes, A&E, the BBC and numerous documentary productions worldwide.

An American who was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Franklin moved to Chile in 1994 and currently resides in Santiago with his wife, Toty Garfe, and his six daughters.