Deep Down Dark

The exclusive, official story of the survival, faith, and family of Chile’s 33 Trapped Miners, by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist

When Chile’s San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó in August, 2010, it trapped 33 miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking 69 days. And across the globe, we sat riveted to television and computer screens while journalists flocked to the Atacama Desert. While we saw what transpired above ground during the grueling and protracted rescue, the story of the miners’ lives buried below the earth’s surface—and the lives that led them there—hasn’t been heard until now.

In Deep Down Dark, this master work of a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Héctor Tobar gains exclusive access to the miners and their stories. The result is a miraculous and emotionally textured account of the 33 men who came to think of the San José mine as a kind of coffin, as a “cave” inflicting constant and thundering aural torment, and as a church where they sought redemption through prayer, while the world watched from above. It offers an understanding of the families and personal histories that brought “los 33” to the mine, and the mystical and spiritual elements that surrounded working at such a dangerous place.