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.
- Used Book in Good Condition.