The Last Run - by Todd Lewan (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in paperback--the epic tale of the oldest registered fishing vessel in Alaska, which wrecked in the Gulf of Alaska in 1998 during the worst Arctic storm in years, and the heroic efforts of three teams of Coast Guard aviators to rescue the survivors. 16-page b&w photo insert.

From the Back Cover

It was a desperate mission that made front-page headlines and captured the attention of millions of readers around the world. In January 1998, in the dead of an Alaskan winter, a cataclysmic Arctic storm with hurricane-force winds and towering seas forced five fishermen to abandon their vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and left them adrift in thirty-eight-degree water with no lifeboat. Their would-be rescuers were 150 miles away at the Coast Guard station, with the nearby airport shut down by an avalanche.

The Last Run is the epic tale of the wreck of the oldest registered fishing schooner in Alaska, a hellish Arctic tempest, and the three teams of aviators in helicopters who withstood 140-mph gusts and hovered alongside waves that were ten stories high. But what makes this more than a true-life page-turner is its portrait of untamed Alaska and the unflappable spirit of people who forge a different kind of life on America's last frontier, the "end of the roaders" who are drawn to, or flee to, Alaska to seek a final destiny.

Review Quotes

"A harrowing real-life tale of rescue on the high seas." - Peter Nichols, author of EVOLUTION'S CAPTAIN
"The big brawling storm and epic Coast Guard rescue in the Gulf of Alaska is an utterly heart-pounding story." - Todd Balf, author of THE DARKEST JUNGLE
"Exhilarating ... Immediate and terrifying ... edge-of-the-seat [reading]." - Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
"A gripping account [that] reads like a novel." - USA Today
"The stuff of legends....A tale of genuine heroism...that you won't easily put down." - Decatur Daily
"For sheer reading thrills, you won't find anything to match THE LAST RUN, not this fishing season, and probably for many more." - New Orleans Times-Picayune
"[A] gripping sea rescue tale." - Anchorage Daily News
"A powerful story reported and told with extraordinary skill....will keep you turning the pages at a furious rate." - Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Todd Lewan raises the standard for non-fiction survival stories. Hair-raising ... hilarious [and] engaging." - Jason Kersten, author of JOURNAL OF THE DEAD
"THE PERFECT STORM transferred to Alaska, but with a much more heroic conclusion." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Blockbuster." - New York Magazine
"Grade 'A'. A spectacular maritime page-turner...obsessively reported, meticulously crafted, morally complex, and action-crammed, The Last Run is one perfect storm of a book." - Entertainment Weekly
"Grade 'A'. A spectacular maritime page-turner ... one perfect storm of a book." - Entertainment Weekly
"Nail-biting ... [gives] readers a sense of why the fishermen were willing to risk so much for .... so little." - Publishers Weekly
"This riveting book has it all ... suspenseful ... dramatic .... and touchingly human and humorous. - James Bradley, author of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and FLYBOYS