A teenager who strolled away from a deadly plane crash in the jungle. A sailor who was rescued after spending two months adrift on the Atlantic. An alpinist who dragged his injured body to safety across an unforgiving landscape. Sure, luck played a factor for all of them, but Gonzales mashes up hard science with adrenaline-splashed anecdotes to suggest that some people are just hard-wired for survival—while explaining how the rest of us can still tip the odds in our favor.