From award-winning ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman,
and written using exclusive interviews and information comes the
definitive account of the dramatic story that gripped the world: the
miracle rescue of twelve boys and their soccer coach trapped in a
flooded cave miles underground for nearly three weeks--a pulse-pounding
page-turner by a reporter who was there every step of their journey
out.
After a practice in June 2018, a Thai soccer coach took a dozen of his
young players to explore a famous but flood-prone cave. It was one of
the boys' birthday, but neither he nor the dozen resurfaced. Worried
parents and rescuers flocked to the mouth of a cave that seemed to have
swallowed the boys without a trace. Ranging in age from eleven to
sixteen, the boys were all members of the Wild Boars soccer team. When
water unexpectedly inundated the cave, blocking their escape, they
retreated deeper inside, taking shelter in a side cavern. While the
world feared them dead, the thirteen young souls survived by licking the
condensation off the cave's walls, meditating, and huddling together for
warmth.
In this thrilling account, ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt
Gutman recounts this amazing story in depth and from every angle,
exploring their time in the cave, the failed plans and human mistakes
that nearly doomed them, and the daring mission that ultimately saved
them. Gutman introduces the elite team of volunteer divers who risked
death to execute a plan so risky that its American planners admitted,
"for us, success would have meant getting just one boy out alive." He
takes you inside the meetings where life and death decisions were grimly
made and describes how these heroes pulled off an improbable rescue
under immense pressure, with the boys' desperate parents and the entire
world watching. One of the largest rescues in history was in doubt until
the very last moment.
Matt Gutman covered the story intensively, went deep inside the caves
himself, and interviewed dozens of rescuers, experts and eye-witnessed
around the world. The result is this pulse-pounding page-turner that
vividly recreates this extraordinary event in all its intensity--and
documents the ingenuity and sacrifice it took to succeed.
