• Lost in Shangri-La

  • A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
  • By: Mitchell Zuckoff
  • Narrated by: Mitchell Zuckoff
  • Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (2,592 ratings)

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Lost in Shangri-La  By  cover art

Lost in Shangri-La

By: Mitchell Zuckoff
Narrated by: Mitchell Zuckoff
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Editorial reviews

Lost In Shangri- La by Mitchell Zuckoff is a blockbuster tale Hollywood couldn’t better. An American military plane crashes in an uncharted and barely accessible part of New Guinea leaving only three survivors, one of them a brave and fetching blonde member of the Women’s Army Corps. The survivors and natives share a fascinating rapprochement, despite the tribe’s propensity to war.

Zuckoff tells the tale with an unusual focus on the personalities randomly thrust together and the collision of stunningly different worlds. His writing and delivery let the drama speak for itself: his mellow voice and almost conversational style avoids histrionics at the climactic moments, yet still conveys the characters’ emotional journeys.

Events take off, literally in 1945 in Dutch New Guinea, where Americans still at war with the Japanese were stationed. Twenty-four soldiers and members of the Women’s Army Corps are treated by their boss to a recreational flight over “Shangri-La”, a storied part of the island recently discovered.

Flying over a narrow valley on the mountainous island (which had already foundered 600 planes during the war), treacherous terrain and human error result in the crash, killing all but three on board: Corporal Margaret Hastings, a 30-year-old WAC enlistee from upstate New York, who sustained leg burns; Sergeant Kenneth Decker, whose stoicism wasn’t fully realized until the severity of his wounds were discovered days later, and, finally, Lieutenant John McCollom who, while physically the heartiest, was arguably the most wounded, having left the remains of his twin brother in the wreckage.

Zuckoff sensitively narrates the travails of the immediate aftermath when the trio, living on scant water and hard candies, drag themselves through the jungle to a clearing where they will be more visible to search planes.

But they are first spotted by natives, fierce-looking and, for all the survivors know, cannibals. Drawing heavily on Margaret’s diary, Zuckoff seems to share the sense of wonder, as well as the initial condescension, curiosity, and fear shared by the survivors. And, through his research with the tribesmen and their progeny about the long-ago event, he helps us grasp the culture and reactions of the tribe, who believed the survivors to be gods or spirits of death to be honored. The tribe’s almost religious commitment to making war makes the relationships that grew between the two groups that much more remarkable. Margaret and a regal, gracious tribeswoman find a deep bond, with nary a comprehensible word between them.

After five weeks together, the rescue operation is ready. Zuckoff sets it up with all the challenges of logistics and aeronautic risks, telling a heart-stopping narrative from the arrival of paratroopers through the seemingly doomed attempts to “snatch” the survivors to safety.

For all the swashbuckling, exotic appeal of this historic episode, the most moving sections were the intimacies Zuckoff sought out from the survivors and shares here like secret, treasured knowledge the snippets of letters sent home; details of families’ idiosyncrasies, and especially, the fascinatingly ordinary lives the survivors lived out, after the event Zuckoff reveals in all its extraordinariness. Elly Schull Meeks

Publisher's summary

On May 13, 1945, 24 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 best-selling 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.

©2011 Mitchell Zuckoff (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Lost in Shangri-La

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining, informative, but not required reading

Entertaining listening, very informative about the natives that were encountered during this period of our history. I enjoyed learning about new cultures and this undiscovered land. Not necessarily required reading for World War II history buffs like me, but fun and exciting in a tangential way. Performance was a little dry, Felt more like a travel log than an adventure, but history well presented nonetheless

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible True Story of WWII

What made the experience of listening to Lost in Shangri-La the most enjoyable?

Author's voice

What did you like best about this story?

True story of WWII

Which scene was your favorite?

Vivid discription of plane crash and events leading up to the crash

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating Survival Adventure!

An edge of your seat account of a plane crash & rescue that will carry you half a world away to discover an unknown civ.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well Worth the Listen

Extremely well researched. Especially appreciated all the background on people, tech. + people follow up

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A fascinating true story

Where does Lost in Shangri-La rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very high on my list as a fascinating true story made even more so in that the author did first person research with those that were there

What was one of the most memorable moments of Lost in Shangri-La?

The research the author did which he got perspectives of those rescued and the natives that were there a generation after the event. How when both communicated one thing but was perceived totally different by the other

Which scene was your favorite?

The recue was most amazing

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was touching when the Author had shown pictures taken during the rescue to a New Guiney man who was a child during the rescue and he recognized his grandfather as the chief of the natives that looked after the Americans

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

This really was an amazing WWII story

At the time of WWII, much of the Philippines was uncharted, and its inhabitants unknown. Rumors of a verdant valley hidden in deep mountains, dubbed Shangri-La, had bored American flight crews taking sightseeing trips over the area in good weather. When one of these flights crashed, four horribly injured survivors got to see the valley and meet its primitive inhabitants in person.
Nice narration by the author. Very interesting explanation of the crazy slingshot the rescuers devised to get their comrades out of that small, narrow valley ringed by treacherously tall mountains and hundreds of miles of dense jungle and Japanese soldiers. Fascinating to hear of their encounters with the natives, although I couldn't help wondering what we were missing.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing True Story!

If you could sum up Lost in Shangri-La in three words, what would they be?

A great find!

What other book might you compare Lost in Shangri-La to and why?

WWII historical non-fiction similar to "Unbroken".

What about Mitchell Zuckoff’s performance did you like?

Author's performance was beautifully told and the detailed accounting was believable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes it was.

Any additional comments?

This is the kind of book I love to encounter. True and absorbing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very good read

Gripping through our the story. Used this in audio form while traveling doin South. Enjoyable

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

So nice to hear a book read by its author

Mitchell Zuckoff relates a fascinating tale of courage, survival and human endurance amid the steaming jungles of New Guinea.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Too many boring details

The story was good, but I was just looking for a story of survival and rescue. It also ended up being a detailed history of World War II and each character's background. The author went off on tangents including detailed histories of every single character that entered the story. There were so many side stories that had nothing to do with the actual story it got boring. I can tell that the author did a ton of research for this book, however, every detail didn't need to make it into the story. If it was about half as long it would've gotten 5 stars.

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