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

This was such a great book. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Even though we all know what happened, finding out the small details made it so much more interesting. Well done!

This book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! Matt Guttman has stellar reporting skills and really brought this story to life.

Great story of an impossible rescue

Really keep my attention.

While there was a plethora of technical information on the logistics of the boy's rescue, and much written about the rescuers, there was sparse detail about the psychology of the childrens' survival. I couldn't help but wonder what daily torment the boys endured, how their coach martialed strength to endlessly support them, and what the sequelae (PTSD or PTG?) of the ordeal was. Was the coach tormented by his decision to take the boys on this dangerous adventure? Were the parents forgiving of his decison? I was quite disappointed with the read because I thought it would be a suspensful and detailed account of the psychology of potential terror and the elements that fostered survivial.

This is the definitive telling of this story, told with a journalist’s eye for detail. It’s exciting without being sensationalized and comprehensive without being ponderous. The critically high stakes come across better than I construed from the news coverage at the time, and the climactic rescue section is almost cinematically well-paced in how it’s written. Big recommendation from me.

The Boys in the Cave is the true story of the miraculous rescue of twelve young footballers and their coach, trapped by floodwaters deep inside a massive cave system in Northern Thailand after a day trip goes horribly wrong. It’s two years ago already, but I can still remember being totally gripped - alongside most of the rest of the world - by a mission so complex and unprecedented, and the euphoria when news came in first that they had been first found alive, and then of their successful extraction. The American author is a head journalist for ABC News and was on site for most of the three weeks, and has interviewed many of the key figures involved.

I was fascinated by this story at the time, partly because only two months earlier I had been in Thailand, first for a medical conference and then for a kayaking trip. I’ve never seen the appeal of caving and the idea of being trapped underwater would have to be the scariest thing I can imagine. I haven’t been scuba diving in about fifteen years, but did quite a lot when I was younger, so also found the descriptions of diving through the cave absolutely terrifying. Thinking of twelve boys, the youngest only 11, imprisoned in the dark for nearly three weeks, their desperate parents waiting outside in the glare of the international media, with all experts predicting that pending monsoon rains would make rescue impossible, was just horrific. If I hadn’t known the ultimate outcome then I’m not sure I could’ve read this, then tension was so high. In fact if this were fiction one would dismiss the ending as being too unrealistic.

One of the fascinating aspects of the book is how much politics came into play, and sometimes jeapordised the operation. The outcome was ultimately a triumph of compassion over ego, and enormous amounts of luck, that people with just the right skills happened to be close by, or knew of other people with even more specialised skills who would abandon the safety of their lives and travel to the other side of the world to try and save these children. I felt pretty proud when we heard that the cave divers who first found the boys were two Brits - so it was slightly disturbing to read that they were supposed to hang back so the Thai Navy Seals could have the glory.

I was also very interested in the medical aspects of the rescue - as a travel doctor I know more than most about tropical infectious diseases, so the range of possible infections faced not just by the boys and their rescuers but also by the thousands of volunteers, army, media, family and support workers in that hot humid muddy environment was huge. Unfortunately the book barely touched on this.

Then there were the technicalities of anaesthetising the boys to allow underwater transfer - which at first no one was willing to risk - Gutman describes how the heroic Australian anaesthetist who achieved this initially insisted on being granted immunity from prosecution or litigation before even setting foot in the country, because he feared being blamed for their deaths. I don’t remember hearing at the time about how the dive team had to give repeated injections of ketamine to keep the boys unconscious during the many hours required. The saddest part is obviously the death of Thai Navy Seal Saman Gunan, who sacrificed his life to the mission, and the portrait at the end brought a tear to my eye. The book is, appropriately, dedicated to him.

Where the book drags a bit is when he introduces and describes every single actor in the drama - the attention to detail is admirable but I soon lost track of who was who. It’s understandable as some of the unpublicised heroes - like the Thai water engineer who coordinated the pumping that allowed access, and the American rock climber who bridges the delicate gap between the international teams, and the Thai government and military, to allow the mission to proceed. The only sour notes are his nauseating fawning over the odious egomaniac, who tried to hijack the rescue with his impractical pod to impress his Twitter followers - perhaps Gutman was afraid of getting sued, also some fairly unkind and unwarranted speculation over the motives of some participants.

I read this on my Kindle, but also downloaded it to my iPad, so I could refer to the maps, and see all the photos at the end. Overall, if you’re interested to know more from behind the scenes of arguably the most amazing story of the 21st Century so far, this is a comprehensive and competently written account. Perhaps one day it might include interviews with some of the boys themselves, once they reach adulthood, which would help round it out better.

Loved this book. Learned more information about the rescue. So many hero’s