Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II in Ask Mitchell Zuckoff

Mar 18, 2013 Leslie Good rated it liked it

I got this audiobook for my husband, and after hearing him rave about it, I listened to it myself. This is a really interesting history concerning events on New Guinea during WWII. A group of 24 American servicemen and WACs take what is supposed to be a sightseeing trip over a remote valley in New Guinea and when the plane crashes, all but 3 are killed. The author has researched this incident thoroughly, interviewing the 3 survivors as well as many of the New Guinea natives who were involved in ...more

Like · see review

Aug 30, 2011 Daniel Burton rated it liked it

Shelves: history, us-history, world-war-two

In the closing months of World War II, twenty-four serviceman and WACs climbed aboard a military transport plane for a day of sightseeing over a recently discovered "hidden valley" deep in the interior of Dutch New Guinea. Surrounded by high, jungle covered mountains and far from civilization, the valley was home to natives undiscovered by western civilization, war-like tribesman rumored to be cannibals.

As the flight approached the valley--called "Shangri-la" after James Hilton's best-selling no In the closing months of World War II, twenty-four serviceman and WACs climbed aboard a military transport plane for a day of sightseeing over a recently discovered "hidden valley" deep in the interior of Dutch New Guinea. Surrounded by high, jungle covered mountains and far from civilization, the valley was home to natives undiscovered by western civilization, war-like tribesman rumored to be cannibals.

As the flight approached the valley--called "Shangri-la" after James Hilton's best-selling novel Lost Horizons--things went horribly wrong for the pleasure tour, and the plane crashed, killing all but three of the passengers. What followed was a tale of survival and heroism as the survivors trekked from the mountainside crash site, hidden beneath the jungle canopy, to find help.

Mitchell Zuckoff's tale about the survival and rescue of Margaret Hastings, John McCollom, and Kenneth Decker from the untracked New Guinea jungle is a fascinating adventure in one of the last unmapped places on the planet. At a time when the world was at war, aviators and soldiers made a daring plan to retrieve them.

Lost in Shangri-la is one of the faster pieces of non-fiction I read in 2012, but was worth the time. Instead of contemplating the weighty and heavy issues a lot of history dwells upon, Lost in Shangri-la focuses more on the human element, profiling the participants in the crash and the rescue. Separated by some seventy years, it's hard to imagine a time when anywhere on the planet is inaccessible, let alone unmapped. It would be decades before satellites made GPS-devices possible, and even to this day the hidden valley the tour group was intending to view is accessible only by plane.

In addition to interviews with survivors, newspaper clips, and US Army records of the event, Zuckoff draws on interviews with the natives who met the survivors after their crash, many for whom it was their first contact with anyone outside of their secluded valley.

If you're looking for a unique and fascinating narrative history, Lost in Shangri-la is an interesting and fascinating read, thoroughly researched and well written. It's relatively short and I thought it was an easy read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2011 Lynn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure-books, history-books, non-fiction, travel, suspense

A Fantastic book of nonfiction with a wonderful story to tell. During World War II, in a far off military base in Dutch New Guinea, a group of American military personnel are allowed the rest and relaxation available in this remote place. They are given a plane ride around Dutch New Guinea to see the sights and then to the Dutch colonial capital. The pilots plan to swing around to a valley some named Shangri-la after the place name in Lost Horizon. It is a valley of great beauty and everyone wan ...more

Like · see review

Mar 14, 2012 Tea Pot Princess rated it it was amazing

This is a copy of a review I wrote for Amazon:

If you like survival stories, Lost in Shangri-La is a good one. I read this book to learn about the people on Dutch New Guinea, the island where the plane crashed since I have only heard about them from two other sources, both fundamentalist Christian. I wanted to hear a description from a non-Christian point of view. I was not disappointed.

If you have read Don Richarson's Peace Child and Lords of the Earth, or Bill Gothard organization's Pineapple S This is a copy of a review I wrote for Amazon:

If you like survival stories, Lost in Shangri-La is a good one. I read this book to learn about the people on Dutch New Guinea, the island where the plane crashed since I have only heard about them from two other sources, both fundamentalist Christian. I wanted to hear a description from a non-Christian point of view. I was not disappointed.

If you have read Don Richarson's Peace Child and Lords of the Earth, or Bill Gothard organization's Pineapple Story, then you have heard of these stone age natives before. If you recall the difficulty of translating the holy scriptures into a language that had no concept of peace or sacrificial love; if you recall the culture that had no concept of how to use the wheel because the terrain is so rugged a wheeled vehicle cannot be used, you will appreciate this account of trying to rescue three persons, two of whom were seriously injured.

Even as a very young reader of Peace Child, I thought how wonderful it could be if the Bible I knew were translated into a form that would make sense to us today in North America. The Shack is the nearest thing to my old dream. If you have read The Shack, you have profitted from the translation of the Bible into a language that had no equivalents for Christian ideas. The author of The Shack is a child of one of the translators of this stone age language in the valley of Shangri-La.

Because the residents of the valley thought the three white survivors were gods, the three remained alive. Their rescuers were also white and were also thought to be gods. There was no way out of the valley but on foot, so the white people had to stay for quite a long time until the injured survivors could travel. During that time, one person wrote a journal recording as much as possible about the native population. This is what I read the book to hear. The book does a good job of looking at the crash from both points of view, from those who fell into the valley and those they fell into.

Lost in Shangri-La is easy reading and brings to life a time and place in history that will never be repeated. This plane crash was the beginning of the end for a culture that was locked in time and had 2000 ways to say they had hit some one but only two words to express the idea of colour. I think it was well worth the read to get another point of view on the culture of the valley. The survival, search, and rescue part of the story was like frosting on the cake. ...more

Like · see review

Aug 08, 2011 Rose rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Interesting read; very captivating, this is a story of the journey of survivors of a plane crash during WWII, a sightseeing day that ended with a crash in the jungle. The survivors had to make peace with the local tribes, while trying to nurse their very serious injuries long enough to survive. Good read!

Like · see review

Aug 17, 2012 Mary Ann rated it it was amazing

Excellent, well written, thoroughly researched true story of a incredible mission to save survivors of a downed plane in New Guinea during WWII.

Like · see review

May 04, 2011 David V. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Received this book as an ARC from a contact at the publishing house.

Like · see review

May 27, 2013 Pat added it · review of another edition

Another great book by Mitchell Zuckoff about American service members being imperiled by plane crashes during WWII. Zuckoff does an excellent job at setting the scene and making the dangers of the situation very real to the reader. Fascinating details straight from the survivors' and rescuers' journals and accompanying photographs of the survivors and the tribesmen they had to interact with allowed the story to be told in great detail. A great read. ...more

Like · see review

May 05, 2011 Maureen rated it really liked it

This was a non-fiction book. I really love non-fiction books that read like fiction. If we could teach all children about history by reading books like this one, no one could say they "hate" history. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Mary rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, biography, military, history

Really Liked this book. IF you liked the book UNBROKEN , you will like this as well. Describes a WWII rescue mission in the Pacific Islands. Really interesting story of courage on multiple fronts.

Like · see review