In 2012, Salvador Alvarenga, a fishing boat captain, and his crewmate were lost at sea. Though his crewmate died, Alvarenga survived until he washed ashore fourteen months later. Jonathan Franklin’s book, 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, tells Alvarenga’s amazing story of unparalleled resilience.

Jesús Bendezú, project architect at Caddis Collaborative, says 438 Days is his current favorite book because “it is unbelievable what humans can make it through.” This “tale of survival in the worst possible conditions,” says Jesús. Alvarenga had no help and had to depend solely on his wits and his instinct for survival. His story makes you realize that anything you go through in life doesn’t begin to compare to Alvarenga’s experience.

“His story shows you how inspiring human beings can be,” Jesús says. “There wasn’t necessarily any hope, but he just kept doing what he had to do to get to the next moment and the next moment after that for months on end by himself out in the middle of the ocean.”

Jesús is inspired by the fact that Alvarenga survived and that he lived to tell the tale, that his story could be told. Author Jonathan Franklin interviewed Alvarenga and collaborated with him on the manuscript.

The result, says Jesús, is a riveting story of perseverance and the will to live. He highly recommends the book “to anyone who wants to understand how tenacious human beings can be.”