Deep Down Dark

Starred review from July 28, 2014
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and novelist Tobar (The Barbarian Nurseries) presents the riveting story of the 33 men who spent 69 days trapped more than 2,000 feet underground in Chile’s San José Mine in 2010. Noting that the abundance of minerals under the hills of the Atacama desert drew workers from all corners of Chile, Tobar—who was granted exclusive access to the miners and their families—compassionately recounts the miners’ personal histories, experiences during the 17 days they were without outside contact, extended rescue, and the drama above ground with the families living near the mine in their makeshift “Camp Esperanza,” mingling with government ministers, NASA advisors, engineers, mechanics, and drillers. Particularly moving is the reenactment of the first 17 days when the “33” banded together, drinking dirty water used to cool off the mine’s drilling systems and sharing their meager food supplies. Feeling as though “they are living inside a Bible parable,” the men keep their hopes up through prayer, and some gravitate toward particular roles: the pastor, the chronicler, the unofficial spokesman. Tobar vividly narrates the miners’ lives post-rescue as they come to terms with their life-changing experience and the media frenzy surrounding it. Rich in local color, this is a sensitive, suspenseful rendering of a legendary story. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
The mind-boggling story of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,000 feet underground for 10 weeks. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Tobar (The Barbarian Nurseries, 2011, etc.) spins a gripping narrative, taut to the point of explosion, of the 2010 story that made international headlines for weeks. He doesn't rush a complex story with many strands: the men below and their cacophony of woes, the families above, the political maneuvering of the Chilean state, the tightfisted mine owners and the company of rescuers. The locale featured "harsh, waterless surroundings [that] serve as a laboratory for studying the possibility of life on other planets," and the mine itself was a sweltering jackstraw of tunnels, some nearing 100 years in age and ripe for disaster, the rock groaning and hissing as the great tectonic plates collided deep below. Tobar's depiction of the cave-in is cinematic: The ceiling and floor became "undulating waves of stone," then the lights went out as colossal wedges of rock collapsed to seal the exits. The author fully invests readers in the men's plight by portraying the crushing realization of the dire circumstances, individual acts of decency and pettiness, and moments of sublimity and madness. He also devotes sympathetic attention to the gathering tent city of relatives who refused to leave, certainly not until the bodies were recovered. When the first bore hole punched through, suddenly, "the devil is present in the mine, taking form in all the greed, the misunderstanding, the envy, and the betrayals between the men." Ultimately, once the miners made it out alive, via a frightening escape vehicle, life was good-until all the other stuff that surfaced along with the miners began to bring many of them down. An electrifying, empathetic work of journalism that makes a four-year-old story feel fresh.

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October 1, 2014
In 2007, the world was riveted by news that 33 men were trapped in a mine thousands of miles beneath the surface in a remote part of Chile. The mine was located in the Atacama Desert, an area so remote that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet chose it as the site to imprison political dissidents. Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Tobar draws on interviews with the miners to offer a gripping account of the unprecedented 69 days the men survived underground. The crew began what they thought would be a routine 12-hour shift below the earth in caverns just wide enough for a truck to turn around. Among them were Raul Bustos, who carried a rosary with him; Dario Segovia, who had been scheduled to be off but called in at the last minute for overtime work; Luis Urzua, the supervisor with a topography degree; Jimmy Sanchez, at 18 too young to work in the mines, who begged for the job. Tobar details the harrowing rescue and the emotional and spiritual resolve the men drew on as they struggled to survive in what they thought would be their coffin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2014

We know about the rescue efforts, but what happened underground when the San Jose mine collapsed in Chile in August 2010, trapping 33 miners for an astonishing 69 days? Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tobar, gained exclusive access to the miners and delivers this detailed account.

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