Franklin, a journalist who had previously covered the 2010 Chilean mining rescue — another extraordinary story of survival and isolation — came to the story differently. He waited approximately six months before approaching Alvarenga, and he spent the time in between establishing the context and the background that would allow him to evaluate whatever Alvarenga eventually told him. He spoke Spanish fluently. He understood the social and cultural context of the Salvadoran fisherman community in Mexico. He was not in a hurry.
When Alvarenga finally agreed to speak with him, the cooperation was substantive. The book that resulted, 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, was published by Simon and Schuster in November 2015 — approximately two years after the events it described. Franklin worked to reconcile the conflicting early reports, establish the correct dates, and document the experience in the kind of detail that only extended, trusted interviewing could produce.
The book became the authoritative account of the drift. It addressed the discrepancies in early reporting, documented the survival methods in detail, and gave Alvarenga’s own account of the psychological experience of more than fourteen months alone at sea.
Franklin has been careful, in the book and in subsequent interviews about it, to maintain the distinction between what Alvarenga said and what can be independently verified. He did not claim the book verified every element of the account; he claimed it represented the most thorough and credible account available of what Alvarenga experienced and reported. That is the appropriate distinction for a story of this kind.