Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival | Dean King

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival | Dean King | Unbelievable story,

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Skeletons on the Z...

	Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival Dean King Amazon Remainders Account, 2004 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Riveting

I was drawn to this book by a History Channel show that gave a broad overview of the story. I expected a good read since it has been a best-seller, but have been amazed to find that my nose has been buried in the book as often as I can find time to read. I had been on sort of a "reading hiatus", but this book has rekindled my life-long passion for reading. Excellent!

Unbelievable story,

Fantastic story of true grit! Well researched and equally well written. Get it, read it and save it to share with your grandchildren someday.

Incredible narrative

Amazing story of human fortitude, will to survive, and cunning.

And that oil made from those (ahem) predigested pits -- IS still available. You can buy it on the Internet.

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Devoured by the Desert

This incredible tale captures the true recollections of survivors of shipwreck and enslavement by nomadic Arabs in the western Sahara in 1815. It's a time when the US is striving to assert itself on the world stage. American men seeking to provide for their families willingly take great risk and leave their homeland and find themselves in the Islamic world, stranded and forced to pay a high price to escape. Survival in this world requires enduring constant threat to life and limb. While some of the Arabs are worthy of respect and admirable in their bravery, even the best examples have a moral code that is hard to reconcile with Western values. Equally true is how Islamic values mirror some of the best and worst of Western values (slavery, cruelty for economic profit, strong familial bonds, communal coherance in a time of threat, and dissonance in a time of abundance). While the story of Captain Riley and his fellow American sailors may stand as one of the world's great survival tales, it is enriched by moral themes relevant to today's world experience.

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A true survival story

After reading "In the Heart of the Sea", I was looking for a similar book about survival in the face of tragedy, overwhelming odds and brutal conditions. This book did not disappoint.

While I don't think this book is as tragic as "In the Heart of the Sea", there is no less the human despair and suffering suffered by the crew of the Commerce. The story of the Captain who did his best to care for his crew, having to make difficult decisions while dealing with the often brutal inhabitants of the desert, is inspiring.

For the most part, the sailors were helpless in regarding any decisions about their future once they were captured. After the first escape from a tribe on the Sahara, they soon became helpless pawns in the nomadic trade of the Arabs of the Sahara, split up and passed from one group to another. Hope, resilience, thought of a rescue were their only saving graces, along with a lone Arab that could profit from their rescue. This Arab later proved to have something rare found on the desert, human compassion. Without ruining the story for future readers, it is the sailors resilience through starvation (some said to have weighed 40 pounds at the time of their rescue), dehydration, beatings at the hands of their 'masters', the sun beating down on their burnt, mostly naked bodies, cold nights sleeping in the sand along with all the other ailments suffered, that is truely inspiring.

This is a good book worth the read.

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