The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand - Paperback

by Matt Gutman (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

THE HARROWING BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACCOUNT OF THE BOYS, THE COACH, AND THE HEROES WHO SAVED THEM

On June 23, 2018, twelve boys from a Thai youth soccer team and their twenty-four-year-old coach went missing in the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. Trapped inside the cave by monsoon rains, the teammates survived in darkness for ten days before being located by a pair of British cave divers who swam through a mile of narrow, flooded tunnels to find them. In the days that followed, millions of people around the world watched breathlessly as an elite group of international rescuers raced the clock and risked their own lives to ferry the soccer team to safety.

In The Boys in the Cave, ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman, who covered this story on the ground, offers the untold story of the entire ordeal--tracing the boys' initial journey into the cave, the furious search and near-drownings in the cave's tunnels, the tragic death of a Thai Navy SEAL, and finally the rescue that brought all the boys out safely. Through dozens of interviews, Gutman examines how a mission without precedent required drugging and binding the boys, some of whom nearly died on the way out. From the British and Australian civilian rescue divers to the Thai Navy SEALs to a United States Air Force Special Tactics team, The Boys in the Cave reveals the full cast of unsung heroes who converged on the cave in Thailand's "Golden Triangle" to pull off a rescue even they believed was likely to fail. In addition, Gutman explores how the boys endured the cave for so long, relying on their wits and their unique bonds with each other and their coach.

Including sixteen pages of photos, what emerges is an uplifting and untold story of teamwork, bravery, and hope that defies possibility, reminding us all of the power that exists when people from around the world join forces to solve the impossible.