Customer Reviews

Unshaken: Rising from the Ruins of Haiti's Hotel Montana

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This story not only takes you to the depth of the struggle to stay alive in Haiti but also inspires you to consider your own fragile life and what is most important. I felt like I was in the rubble with him, cheering him on to stay alive and fight. His victory is my my inspiration to live each day to the fullest.

Just over a year ago Dan Woolley and David Hames headed to Haiti. Their goal was to shoot video and photographic footage to highlight the work that Compassion International does in Haiti. Both men were passionate about that work. What started out as a beautiful, productive day ended in unspeakable tragedy.

At 4:53pm a 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti. Dan and David had just arrived back at the Hotel Montana where they were staying. The six story structure took just seconds to collapse and bury the two deep in the rubble.

Unshaken: Rising from the Ruins of Haiti's Hotel Montana is Dan's story. It is an open and emotional account of the hours that Dan spent buried.

Dan lived through the quake and was able to find a safe place in the rubble to wait for rescue. There in the bowels of a hellish situation he struggled with thoughts of his own death and what had happened to David. He worried about what would happen to his wife and two young boys if he wasn't rescued in time. And in pitch black he met the God he had worshiped for years, but had grown lukewarm in the last few years.

In the darkness he heard other survivors near him and together they encouraged each other through the direst of circumstances. A young Haitian man in an elevator shaft next to Dan was one of those survivors. Through their hours in captivity Dan led this young man to a saving relationship with Christ.

When he was rescued 65 hours later he had a head wound, a broken leg, and was dehydrated. But he was also a new man in his faith, having experienced God in a profound way. He emerged from the rubble with a renewed zest for life and for his faith.

This book is more than Dan's story. It is also his wife Christina's story. It brings to light Christina's struggle early in their marriage with clinical depression. In a brave step Christina has spoken out about her life and how depression has affected her and those around her. Many consider depression a weakness and not something a Christian should have a problem with. However, clinical depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain that can be treated with medication and therapy. It is not a failing of the person involved. Just as Dan met God in his darkest time, so did Christina.

Unshaken is brutally honest and at times heart wrenching. Despite knowing the outcome it had me on the edge of my seat and other times in tears. It is a story of tragic devastation and soaring hope; of life and death. More than that, it is a story of rebirth and renewal.

*Sadly, David Hames was killed instantly when the quake hit, but as a Christian we know that we will meet him again heaven.

*A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to Compassion International.

This is one of the most inspiring, edge-of-your-seat nonfiction books I've read in years. Dan Woolley survived 65 hours trapped in darkness under 6 stories of collapsed rubble following last January's earthquake in Haiti. The book is not only about Dan's near-death ordeal following the earthquake, but also the journey he and his wife Christy have taken in their marriage to overcome the darkness of depression. The parallels between the darkness of clinical depression and the darkness of Dan's entrapment are striking, and the context of Dan and Christy's past experiences gives much greater insight into what they were both going through those three days following the Haiti earthquake. The common denominator, beyond a doubt, is their hope and trust in God. I appreciate that Dan doesn't steer away from the hard questions regarding why he survived when so many others didn't - nor does he claim to have the answers. A must read, for sure.

Unshaken is a fast-paced narrative divided into thirty-one short chapters which cover Woolley's experience from the morning of the day the earthquake struck to his reunion with his wife in a Miami hospital three days later. The story is told primarily from Dan's perspective, with a couple of chapters and sections towards the end of the book written by his wife, Christy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are chapters in which Woolley recounts the early years of his marriage which were shrouded in the darkness of Christy's at-times suicidal depression.

Though I would expect a detailed report of three days spent in an elevator to become tedious (life-threatening injuries or not), I found myself being swept along in the current of the story at a breakneck speed. In fact it only took me two days to read the whole book, which is extremely fast for me, a slow-paced reader by preference. I think that the short chapters helped to keep the flow of the story moving quickly. As a fellow viewer of educational survival shows, I also appreciated Woolley's reference to Bear Grylls, whose program Man vs. Wild inspired him to utilize survival methods he may not have otherwise known about.

My favorite chapters were those in which Woolley recounts Christy's years of debilitating depression. I was impressed with her tenacity and ability to weather the long years of emotional and spiritual darkness. Whether intended or not, I think Christy's story will serve to educate Christians on the severity of depression as a physical disease and promote a more compassionate response to it in the church community where too often legitimate chemical imbalances are misinterpreted as laziness or an excuse to escape responsibility.

I did not find the writing itself to be particularly eloquent, and there were a few places where it was repetitive. (The repetitiveness may have been corrected before the final printing. See the note at the bottom of this post.) There were no glaring errors that I noticed which broke the flow of the story. I think that the photo section in the middle of the book adds greatly to the narrative and gives the reader a better idea of what Woolley went through. The cover is attractively designed and the formatting of the book is likewise commendable.

Overall, I found Unshaken to be an encouraging, inspiring, and hair-raising tale that is definitely worth taking the time to read.

Note: My review of the text is based on an uncorrected proof. The final hardcover book was consulted so that I could comment on the formatting and photo section, and to verify quotes. Zondervan provided this book to me for free.

Dan's story of survival is amazing. For me, as a husband and father, it was also deeply personal.

Unshaken weaves Dan and Christy's personal story with his time buried under the Hotel Montana, and in so doing, it speaks to what was on his mind, not just about the earthquake. Dan wanted to be rescued -- for his family. He was concerned for his wife and how she would cope; giving her the best advice he could in his journal. Dan was being a loving husband. He was thinking about his children and how they would grow up without him around, concerned that they would blame God and possibly turn from Him. Dan was being a great dad.

When I read a story like Unshaken, where the author opens his heart, it's a special thing because it lets me identify with the emotions of the moment. As a husband and father myself, I am gripped by the same fears for my family as Dan and Christy's story is told.

Unshaken's impact on me continues to this day, long after the last page was turned. I got a glimpse of what it might have been like for Dan to be reunited with his family, knowing that they would not have to live life without him. Every day God gives me with my family should be lived with that same gratitude and sense of wonder. We are blessed. I am blessed.

My wife and kids were asleep when I finished Unshaken. That didn't stop me from giving each one of them a hug and kiss. I need to cherish each moment with them and not take the time that God has given us together for granted. We can never know what tomorrow will bring.

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P.S. A father's love for his family is great. How much greater is God's love for us, and how much sweeter will our reunion be with Him?

I received this book as a gift, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I found it to be much more than the story of one man's experience of getting trapped in the earthquake in Haiti. He weaves two seemingly unrelated stories together - the earthquake and the struggles he and his wife went through in their marriage. I have to admit I got totally pulled into this book. The pace continued to picked up as it went along, until near the end I couldn't put it down! This is an inspiring story of lessons learned when the going gets rough - about how God comes alongside us, and about what it REALLY means to totally trust and rely on God and not ourselves. It really challenged me in my own walk with God - I highly recommend this book!

Dan Wooley's story is deeply engaging on multiple levels. It's not only his survival story and narrative of his spiritual journey, but also an incredibly transparent and honest account of his wife's depression and how it affected their marriage, and how his experience of being buried in the rubble was transformative not just in his own life/soul but also in their marriage. The format in which it's written is suspenseful; it's hard to put down. In a way, it was his own personal "burial" and "resurrection" to new life.

i'd seen Dan's story as it evolved on television: a young wife on Good Morning America hoping her husband would be found safe in the rubble; the miraculous recovery from the Hotel Montana brought about by a rescue team from Fairfax, VA; the hospital room video and the wonders of clear thinking and technology and prayer. I thought I knew the story. But Dan's book shows that his ordeal involved a great deal more than an AP and a prayer: it was God's time to challenge and renew.

The text details how so many things worked together for Dan's survival--his prayer life, his hours with the boys watching survival shows on tv, his tech-guy training, and his desire to keep a journal. For 65 tortuous hours Dan journeyed in his mind agonizing over the loss of his colleague and the certain loss of life to thousands of others, considering the potential crisis for his family, and grieving over unfulfilled dreams. It is our journey with Dan during that time and in that space that makes this book life-changing not only for Dan and his wife, but also for the those who read.

this book is wonderful on so many levels. it is not just a rescue story. it is a story of the way the whole life hangs together to show us that God is never surprised. He is never unaware. He is big enough to take our honesty. wow....

Unshaken is a remarkable easy read book. Many different turns show you how Christ directs our lives and take care of us..even in unbelievable circumstances. Well worth the time spent reading Unshaken.