Summary from Goodreads:

n May 13, 1945, twenty-four American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over Shangri-La, a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle-covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea. Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton’s bestselling novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri-La was home to spear-carrying tribesmen, warriors rumored to be cannibals. But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed.Miraculously, three passengers pulled through. Margaret Hastings, barefoot and burned, had no choice but to wear her dead best friend’s shoes. John McCollom, grieving the death of his twin brother also aboard the plane, masked his grief with stoicism. Kenneth Decker, too, was severely burned and suffered a gaping head wound.

Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site. Caught between man-eating headhunters and enemy Japanese, the wounded passengers endured a harrowing hike down the mountainside–a journey into the unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man or woman.

Drawn from interviews, declassified U.S. Army documents, personal photos and mementos, a survivor’s diary, a rescuer’s journal, and original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts this incredible true-life adventure for the first time. Mitchell Zuckoff reveals how the determined trio–dehydrated, sick, and in pain–traversed the dense jungle to find help; how a brave band of paratroopers risked their own lives to save the survivors; and how a cowboy colonel attempted a previously untested rescue mission to get them out.

By trekking into the New Guinea jungle, visiting remote villages, and rediscovering the crash site, Zuckoff also captures the contemporary natives; remembrances of the long-ago day when strange creatures fell from the sky. A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that vividly brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening, and comic, Lost in Shangri-La is a thrill ride from beginning to end.

My Review:

I’m not usually a non-fiction, war story type of reader but when I saw this title listed on the TLC Tours as an available review option I didn’t have to think long.  I mean, the title alone is quite the eye-catcher and then, once the book was received, I read the first few pages and immediately was hooked.

One of the most compelling aspects of this book is Zuckoff’s desire to acquaint the reader with the individual history and events leading up to each “central” character in this story.  Rather than letting us read a bone-dry rehashing of the actual events, each survivor (and even those who didn’t survive) were talked about, introduced and made to feel real so that when the fateful moment occurred, I felt a sense of loss and grief.

Interspersed through the pages of the book are pictures, allowing the reader to not only learn about the people but to put a face to the name and that made it even more real to me.

The story itself is an incredible one.  Beyond incredible.  When you take into consideration all of the events leading up to the eventual rescue of Margaret Hastings, John McCollom and Kenneth Decker, it seems incredible that everything fell so neatly into place.  The bravery of those three individuals and their rescuers astounds me and made me feel a sense of pride and wonder at their strength and endurance through something that I cannot even imagine getting through myself.

If you have a reader fond of WWII stories, if you are fond of non-fiction or.. if you want to take a chance to read a story that needs to be told and talked about then this is a perfect, prime example of one.

About the Author

For more reviews on Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff, please follow the book tour.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from TLC Book Tours. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”