From Goodreads: On 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.
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Lost in Shangri-La is the untold story of three plane crash survivors, their daring rescuers, and the native people of the land.  Zuckoff has done a wonderful job compiling interviews, diaries, photos, letters, and even real footage in order to present this forgotten tale in a bold telling from start to finish.  I am not one to read many historical accounts, but when something as intriguing as this comes along, I am always game to try it.  And, I wasn’t disappointed.  Zuckoff has written a wonderful account of events that any history buff is sure to love, while also captivating those of us who aren’t as in love with history.  The presentation of the story is done in such a way that it entices the reader to continue; it’s not all dry and boring like a history textbook, but reads very much like an action novel once the background information of the characters is given and the tale of survival commences.  I personally found some of the background leading up to the story to be a little boring for me, not so much because of the writing or the fact that it’s a historical account, but because I was dying to get to the main portion of the story, which didn’t start until around page 50.  Yet, a good history must give all the details, and that is exactly what Zuckoff does, meticulously explaining the background of the many people involved in this account in order to give the reader a complete history of events.   

I loved following the survivors tale and obtaining the detailed accounts of their perilous journey, and I especially enjoyed finding out what the natives of Shangri-La were truly thinking as they met the survivors and the rescue team.  The juxtaposition of what one group was thinking versus the other was extremely interesting, and Zuckoff has truly put together a wonderful retelling, covering all the bases, including testimony from the natives who were there to witness the events.  This is a very well written account of events long forgotten, and I highly suggest it to anyone interested in history and WWII.  Three stars.

I won a copy of this novel from Goodreads First Reads.