Endurance is an amazing and true story about sailors in 1914 that are stranded in the brutal Antarctic Seas with little resources around them. This story illustrates what real strength, courage and spirit mean. It is bewildering how all of the men survived and how hard they all pushed each other to reach their goal. I still can’t get over how all the men dealt with the hardships they encountered like lack of food, water, and the toughness of the sea. It was such an action packed and compelling book I found it hard to put down. Alfred Lansing did a phenomenal job on how he presented the story. Everything was described so realistically with great amounts of detail. Lansing must have done an enormous amount of research and put a lot of time into writing this book. He described every part of their daily life from how they hunted food to the conditions in which they slept. Lansing also did a good job when describing the background of this adventure. It gives us an idea how much time goes into preparing for this daring voyage.

Throughout the book Lansing gives us more and more information about the characters and their personalities. In my opinion, the most heroic person in the book was Shackleton. Shackleton is an incredible figure. As the leader of the expedition he did a great job keeping the crew together and motivating them to succeed. He made the right decisions at the right time and that truly is what defines what a leader is. The only thing I disliked about the book was the ending. It was very brief on how they made it to safety and it didn’t tell us what happened to the men after the voyage. I think it would have been better to give us more details on the journey back to save them because I would have liked to know if they faced any other problems and I also think it would have been a good idea to follow up with all the men and see how the adventure changed their life. Despite these little details this is a still a riveting book. It taught me many life lessons and it changed the way on how I look at some things. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who loves to read about life threatening adventures and survival stories. It’s a moving novel that will leave you staying up all night to finish it. Read it and you won’t be sorry.