- Used Book in Good Condition.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2011: Near the end of World
War II, a plane carrying 24 members of the United States
, including nine Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members,
ced into the New Guinea jungle during a seeing
excursion. 21 men and women were killed. The three survivors--a
beautiful WAC, a young lieutenant who lost his twin brother in
the c, and a severely injured sergeant--were stranded deep in
a jungle valley notorious for its cannibalistic tribes. They had
no food, little water, and no way to contact their base.
The story of their survival and the stunning efforts undertaken
to save them are the crux of Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell
Zuckoff’s remarkable and inspiring narrative. Faced with the
potential brutality of the Dani tribe, known throughout the
valley for its violence, the trio’s lives were dependent on an
unprecedented rescue mission--a dedicated group of paratroopers
jumped into the jungle to provide aid and medical care,
consequently leaving the survivors and paratroopers alike trapped
on the jungle floor. A perilous rescue by plane became their only
possible route to freedom. A riveting story of deliverance under
the most unlikely circumstances, Lost in Shangri-La deserves its
place among the great survival stories of World War II. --Lynette
Mong
Amazon Exclusive: Hampton Sides Reviews Lost in Shangri-La
Hampton Sides is the editor-at-large for Outside magazine and
the author of the international bestseller Ghost Soldiers, which
won the 2002 PEN USA Award for nonfiction and the 2002 Discover
Award from Barnes & Noble, and also served as the basis for the
2005 Miramax film The Great Raid.
Although World War II was the greatest conflict in the history
of this planet, many a jaded reader has come to the reluctant
conclusion that there aren’t any more World War II stories left
to tell. At least not good ones—not tales of the “ripping good
yarn” variety. Yet remarkably, in his new book Lost in
Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff has found one, and he’s told it with
reportorial verve, narrative skill, and exquisite pacing.
What makes this World War II story all the more fascinating is
that it isn’t really a war story—not in a strict sense.
It’s more of an exotic adventure tale with rich anthropological
shadings. In 1945, near the end of the war, an American plane
ces in a hidden jungle valley in New Guinea inhabited by
Stone Age cannibals. 21 Americans die in the c, but three
injured survivors soon find themselves stumbling through the
jungle without food, nursing terrible wounds and trying to elude
Japanese snipers known to be holding out in the ains.
The first contact between the three Americans and the valley’s
Dani tribesmen is both poignant and comical. The Americans,
Zuckoff writes, have “c-landed in a world that time didn’t
forget. Time never knew it existed.” The tribesmen, who have
never encountered metal and have yet to master the concept of the
wheel, think the American interlopers are white spirits who’ve
descended on a vine from heaven, fulfilling an ancient legend.
They’re puzzled and fascinated by the layers of “removable skin”
in which these alien visitors are wrapped; the natives, who smear
their bodies in pig grease and cover their genitals with gourds,
have never seen clothes before.
The Americans, in turn, are pretty sure their boartusk-bestudded
hosts want to skewer them for dinner.
What ensues in Zuckoff’s fine telling is not so much a cultural
collision as a pleasing and sometimes hilarious mutual unraveling
of assumptions. Though the differences in the two societies are
chasmic, the Americans and the Dani become—in a guarded,
tentative sort of way—friends.
But when armed American airmen arrive via parachute to rescue
the survivors, relations become more tense. The Americans make
their camp right in the middle of a no-man’s land between warring
Dani tribes—a no-man’s land where for centuries they have fought
the battles that are central to their daily culture. Here,
Zuckoff notes, the ironies are profoundly rich. The Dani,
untouched by and indeed utterly unaware of the great war that’s
been raging all across the globe, become thoroughly
discombobulated when their own war is temporarily disrupted.
Yes, there are still a few good World War II stories left to
tell. And yes, this one meets all the requirements of a ripping
good yarn. Zuckoff, who teaches journalism at Boston University,
is a first-rate reporter who has spared no expense to rescue this
tale from obscurity. His story has it all: Tragedy, survival,
comedy, an incredibly dangerous eleventh-hour rescue, and an
immensely attractive heroine to boot. It’s extraordinary that
Hollywood hasn’t already taken this tale and run wild with it. If
it did, the resulting movie would be equal parts Alive, Cast
Away, and The Gods Must Be Crazy. It’s as though the Americans
have arrived in the Stone Age through a wormhole in the
space-time continuum. The Dani don’t know what to do with
themselves—and life, as any of us know it, will never be the
same.