
Out of Captivity
Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Deakins
About this listen
As of that moment they were prisoners of the FARC, a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization. In an instant they had become American captives in Colombia's volatile and ongoing conflict, which has lasted for almost 50 years.
In Out of Captivity, Gonsalves, Stansell, and Howes recount for the first time their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue, tracing their five and a half years as hostages of the FARC. Their story takes you inside one of the world's most notorious terrorist organizations, going behind enemy lines with vivid and haunting imagery. Their words conjure a reality that few people have ever encountered, from sleeping on beds literally carved out of the jungle to escaping Colombian military air strikes under the cover of darkness, to being bound with steel chains by their captors.
Though the physical punishments their bodies endured were unrelenting, the psychological battles they waged were the ultimate test of their resolve. Exposing the transformative power of captivity, they show how they turned their fears into strengths, using their memories and their families, their pasts and their futures, to motivate them in their quest for survival.
Despite the odds and the conditions, despite the chains and the silence, and despite the often tense relationships they experienced with their fellow Colombian hostages, they had one another, forging a bond that allowed them to cope with the horrific conditions of their confinement. This brotherhood enabled them to persevere through the worst that the FARC threw at them while always reminding them of their ultimate goal: freedom.
©2009 Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes (P)2009 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Even Silence Has an End
- My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle
- By: Ingrid Betancourt
- Narrated by: Margaret Nichols
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ingrid Bettancourt tells the story of her captivity in the Colombian jungle, sharing powerful teachings of resilience, resistance, and faith. At the age of 32, she gave up a life of comfort and safety to return to Colombia to become a political leader in a country that was being slowly destroyed by terrorism, violence, fear. In 2002, while campaigning as a candidate in the Colombian presidential elections, she was abducted by the FARC. Nothing could have prepared her for what came next....
-
-
Can't put it downable!!!!
- By Tina on 01-12-11
-
Impossible Odds
- The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six
- By: Jessica Buchanan, Erik Landemalm, Anthony Flacco
- Narrated by: Anthony Flacco, Candace Thaxton, George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 25, 2011, aid worker Jessica Buchanan was kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom by an organized band of Somali land pirates. For the next three months, Jessica was terrorized by more than two dozen gangsters. Every terrifying moment Jessica spent suffering in captivity was matched by that of her adoring husband working behind the scenes to deal with her captors. Finally, on January 25, 2012, President Barack Obama ordered a rescue operation by a team of 24 Navy SEALs. Impossible Odds is a harrowing and heart-wrenching memoir of Jessica's kidnapping, her three months in captivity, and her rescue by the Navy SEALs.
-
-
Misleading
- By Mikeal Dartez on 11-26-20
By: Jessica Buchanan, and others
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
Born Twice
- Memoir of a Special Forces SOG Warrior
- By: Dale Hanson
- Narrated by: Dale Hanson
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dale Hanson takes us from a northern Minnesota boyhood to the incredible stresses of US special operations during the Vietnam War, the deadly world of MAC-V-SOG, the top-secret Special Forces project that conducted America’s secret war against the Communist forces on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Shrouded in mystery and equipped with exotic weaponry, SOG operators suffered casualty rates in excess of 100 percent for three successive years.
-
-
Politics
- By Anonymous User on 11-30-23
By: Dale Hanson
-
Five Years to Freedom
- The True Story of a Vietnam POW
- By: James N. Rowe
- Narrated by: Reathel Bean
- Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Green Beret Lieutenant James N. Rowe was captured in 1963 in Vietnam, his life became more than a matter of staying alive. In a Vietcong POW camp, Rowe endured beri-beri, dysentery, and tropical fungus diseases. He suffered grueling psychological and physical torment. He experienced the loneliness and frustration of watching his friends die. And he struggled every day to maintain faith in himself as a soldier and in his country as it appeared to be turning against him.
-
-
My neighbor and friend
- By jp on 03-17-15
By: James N. Rowe
-
Mossad
- The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
- By: Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal
- Narrated by: Benjamin Isaac
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mossad, authors MichaelBar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history.
-
-
maybe with a different reader.
- By Andrew on 04-30-16
By: Michael Bar-Zohar, and others
-
Even Silence Has an End
- My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle
- By: Ingrid Betancourt
- Narrated by: Margaret Nichols
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ingrid Bettancourt tells the story of her captivity in the Colombian jungle, sharing powerful teachings of resilience, resistance, and faith. At the age of 32, she gave up a life of comfort and safety to return to Colombia to become a political leader in a country that was being slowly destroyed by terrorism, violence, fear. In 2002, while campaigning as a candidate in the Colombian presidential elections, she was abducted by the FARC. Nothing could have prepared her for what came next....
-
-
Can't put it downable!!!!
- By Tina on 01-12-11
-
Impossible Odds
- The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six
- By: Jessica Buchanan, Erik Landemalm, Anthony Flacco
- Narrated by: Anthony Flacco, Candace Thaxton, George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 25, 2011, aid worker Jessica Buchanan was kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom by an organized band of Somali land pirates. For the next three months, Jessica was terrorized by more than two dozen gangsters. Every terrifying moment Jessica spent suffering in captivity was matched by that of her adoring husband working behind the scenes to deal with her captors. Finally, on January 25, 2012, President Barack Obama ordered a rescue operation by a team of 24 Navy SEALs. Impossible Odds is a harrowing and heart-wrenching memoir of Jessica's kidnapping, her three months in captivity, and her rescue by the Navy SEALs.
-
-
Misleading
- By Mikeal Dartez on 11-26-20
By: Jessica Buchanan, and others
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
Born Twice
- Memoir of a Special Forces SOG Warrior
- By: Dale Hanson
- Narrated by: Dale Hanson
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dale Hanson takes us from a northern Minnesota boyhood to the incredible stresses of US special operations during the Vietnam War, the deadly world of MAC-V-SOG, the top-secret Special Forces project that conducted America’s secret war against the Communist forces on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Shrouded in mystery and equipped with exotic weaponry, SOG operators suffered casualty rates in excess of 100 percent for three successive years.
-
-
Politics
- By Anonymous User on 11-30-23
By: Dale Hanson
-
Five Years to Freedom
- The True Story of a Vietnam POW
- By: James N. Rowe
- Narrated by: Reathel Bean
- Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Green Beret Lieutenant James N. Rowe was captured in 1963 in Vietnam, his life became more than a matter of staying alive. In a Vietcong POW camp, Rowe endured beri-beri, dysentery, and tropical fungus diseases. He suffered grueling psychological and physical torment. He experienced the loneliness and frustration of watching his friends die. And he struggled every day to maintain faith in himself as a soldier and in his country as it appeared to be turning against him.
-
-
My neighbor and friend
- By jp on 03-17-15
By: James N. Rowe
-
Mossad
- The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
- By: Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal
- Narrated by: Benjamin Isaac
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mossad, authors MichaelBar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history.
-
-
maybe with a different reader.
- By Andrew on 04-30-16
By: Michael Bar-Zohar, and others
-
No Easy Day
- The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
- By: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the streets of Iraq to the mountaintops of Afghanistan and to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden's compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group - commonly known as SEAL Team Six - has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines. No Easy Day puts listeners alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the 24-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives.
-
-
Gripping, first-hand narrative of Op Neptune Spear
- By Darwin8u on 09-04-12
By: Mark Owen, and others
-
The Hundred-Year Marathon
- China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower
- By: Michael Pillsbury
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the US government's leading China experts reveals the hidden strategy fueling that country's rise - and how Americans have been seduced into helping China overtake us as the world's leading superpower.
-
-
Fascinating perspective.
- By Rocky Mackintosh on 01-05-17
-
The Lost City of Z
- A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to find out what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z.
-
-
A Worthy Read for Armchair Explorers
- By Jennifer Seattle, WA on 03-01-09
By: David Grann
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
I Will Find You
- Solving Killer Cases from My Life Fighting Crime
- By: Detective Lieutenant Joe Kenda
- Narrated by: Detective Lieutenant Joe Kenda
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Kenda investigated 387 murder cases during his 23 years with the Colorado Springs Police Department and solved almost all of them. And he is ready to detail the cases that are too gruesome to air on television, cases that still haunt him, and the few cases where the killer got away. These cases are horrifyingly real, and the detail is so mesmerizing you won't be able to turn it off.
-
-
LT KENDA IS FANTASTIC
- By Kindle Customer on 10-04-17
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
A House in the Sky
- A Memoir
- By: Amanda Lindhout, Sara Corbett
- Narrated by: Amanda Lindhout
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amanda Lindhout reads her spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into 15 months of harrowing captivity in Somalia - a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace. In August 2008, she traveled to Mogadishu, Somalia - "the most dangerous place on Earth." On her fourth day in the country, she and her photojournalist companion were abducted.
-
-
Drawing Strength from an Empty Well
- By Mel on 09-12-13
By: Amanda Lindhout, and others
-
In the Presence of My Enemies
- By: Gracia Burnham
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Presence of My Enemies, the gripping true story of American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham's year as hostages in the Philippine jungle, was a New York Times best seller and has sold nearly 350,000 copies. This updated audio edition has a new look and contains never-before published information.
-
-
Good book ruined by bad reader
- By Michael on 05-13-22
By: Gracia Burnham
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- By: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
The truth
- By Bobbyg on 10-08-19
By: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
The Killer's Shadow
- The FBI's Hunt for a White Supremacist Serial Killer
- By: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
- Narrated by: Holt McCallany
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Worshippers stream out of an Midwestern synagogue after sabbath services, unaware that only a hundred yards away, an expert marksman and avowed racist, antisemite and member of the Ku Klux Klan, patiently awaits, his hunting rifle at the ready. A riveting, cautionary tale rooted in history that continues to echo today, The Killer's Shadow is a terrifying and essential exploration of the criminal personality in the vile grip of extremism and what happens when rage-filled speech evolves into deadly action and hatred of the “other" is allowed full reign.
-
-
A relevant and important read.
- By Alyson on 12-25-20
By: John E. Douglas, and others
-
Men in Green Faces
- A Novel of U.S. Navy SEALs
- By: Gene Wentz, B. Abell Jurus
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gene Wentz's Men in Green Faces is the classic novel of Vietnam that inspired a generation of SEALs. Here is the story of a good soldier trained to be part of an elite team of warriors - and of the killing grounds where he was forever changed. Gene Michaels carries an M-60, 800 rounds, and a Bible. The ultimate SEAL, he also carries a murderous grudge against a bloodthirsty colonel who was once one of their own.
-
-
Too much like a Hollywood movie...
- By Oldthaiger on 02-23-15
By: Gene Wentz, and others
-
First Casualty
- The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
- By: Toby Harnden
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dramatic true story reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11.
-
-
Deeply researched
- By Jason G on 09-08-21
By: Toby Harnden
Editorial reviews
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-People’s Army - known popularly as FARC - is a guerrilla organization (considered by some to be terrorist in nature) that advocates a violent imposition of Marxist-Leninist politics in Columbia. If you are a U.S. Defense Department contractor, the FARC region of the Columbian jungle is not where you want your plane to crash land. And yet, that is exactly what happened to a group of Americans in February of 2003.
Mark Deakins performs this harrowing story of those who survived the crash and nearly 2000 days in FARC captivity. In alternating sections, the survivors recall terror, exhaustion, insects, sicknesses, and many other maladies endured in their long wait for freedom. Particularly interesting is that a fellow captive was Columbian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
What listeners say about Out of Captivity
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Susan
- 03-26-09
great
this is a great book. helps put things into perspective.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- NoemiFrag
- 08-26-21
I couldn't put this book down!
Such bravery and fortitude displayed by these American heros! I could not put this book down and almost felt guilty when I would hit the pause button, felt like I was leaving them in that situation until I picked it back up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Magda
- 05-05-09
good to know how is life in there
I like the book. I like to hear how ingrid betancourt reacted and behaved. While you listen you can imagene everything
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erik
- 01-05-23
Great book
Very good book. Great story telling. Scary times. I look forward to reading more books
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- straubhaar
- 04-12-09
Excellent documentary
I found this book excellent. I spend a lot of time in Colombia and and interested in how the FARC operates versus what I always heard in the media. Hearing these first hand stories from the inside was fantastic. They do an excellent job recanting the past and bring the experience directly to the listener. Thank god they got out alive and were able to share their story.
This is a great historical document.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Taylor
- 08-01-09
Not an average workday
Loved it! Nice, clear narration, too. I first heard about this book in an NPR interview with two of the authors. Amazing how these men sustained hope for so long against such overwhelming odds. Their accounts don't sugarcoat life as captives of Colombian rebels. It can be just a little gritty, but without being depressing. I want to hear if the Freedom Ride ever happens!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tyler N. Perkins
- 03-06-20
Fantastic. Glad you are back home.
I started my Air Force career at the air operations center under JIATF South in 2006 in the middle of their captivity and served there long enough to see these gentlmen come home. Not a single day went by that they were not actively being searched for. I am so glad that we have this incredible first hand glimpse into their struggle. It is very well told both in story and narration. The end, being reunited with family, brought tears to my eyes. I am so glad they were able to come home.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- James C
- 07-04-10
Fascinating!
This is a fascinating story that hasn't received a lot of coverage in the media! Highly recommend both for the content and narration. Interesting from both psychological and cultural perspectives, the authors describe their experiences over five years of captivity in the jungle in a very candid manner.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- George
- 02-12-10
One of the best dramas I have read
This is without a doubt the best real life drama I have read. What a ride! Should be a movie.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeremiah Bridges
- 06-17-21
No words to explain their heroism!
What a story! You will not be anything but encouraged after hearing their first hand accounts!! God Bless all three of you!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!