Shadow Divers - Hardcover

Superlative .... If the publishers are dreaming of another Perfect Storm, they may get their wish. - Publishers Weekly A tremendously suspenseful story of discovery that comes as close as any book could to providing the reader with approximate sensations of deep sea diving and of life on a submarine at war, and that leaves us with a hell of an impression of the grit, guts, and compassion of a U-boat crew and the two American divers who risked everything to solve the mystery of their last mission. - John McCain, author of FAITH OF MY FATHERS Robert Kurson's SHADOW DIVERS is a gripping account of real-life adventurers and a real-life mystery. In addition to being compellingly readable on every page, the book offers a unique window on the deep, almost reckless nature of the human quest to know. - Scott Turow, author of PRESUMED INNOCENT Robert Kurson's status as an undiscovered pleasure among Chicago readers is about to change, I suspect, in a hurry. SHADOW DIVERS is so culturally astute and terrifyingly suspenseful that it should reach the sort of audience John Berendt, Susan Orlean, Jon Krakauer and Laura Hillenbrand have recently earned. Kurson's new focus is the larger historical world a world of U-Boats, forensics and lung-crushing pressure and his prose is, as always, plain gorgeous. - James McManus, author of POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET An engrossing saga of t

February 1945. The war is almost over and Britain and America rule the waves. Sixty young Nazi soldiers are stranded underwater in U-Boat U-869 with barely enough fuel to make it home. The commander must decide whether to carry on to America and risk death in the pursuit of glory, or to admit defeat and return home. He decides to risk it. September 1991. Two deep-sea wreck divers receive a tip-off from a local fisherman about a site off the New Jersey coast. What they discover defies belief: a Nazi U-boat, 230 feet underwater. The recommended limit for diving is 130 feet, but John Chatterton and Richie Kohler know that if they don't take the risk, the mystery of the wreck will remain unsolved. Shadow Divers is the extraordinary story of the six-year quest for Hitler's lost sub. In the attempt to identify the sunken U-boat and its crew, the team teach themselves German, turn back fanatics and conspiracy theorists, and piece together an incredible story. In between, they make some of the most daring and dangerous scuba dives ever attempted. This is a gripping and compellingly readable account of human courage in the face of remarkable odds.