Wednesday 13 June 2012

Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zukoff

Lost In Shangri-La is a true life adventure story.  In 1945, a group of American service men and women stationed in Dutch New Guinea got on a plane with the intention of seeing the mysterious 'hidden' valley of Shangri-La.  They never made it - their plane crashed into the jungle and only three survived.  Surrounded by hostile terrain, potentially unfriendly natives and with life-threatening injuries, they began battling to survive.  Lost in Shangri-La chronicles what happened afterwards from their meetings with tribespeople who had no previous interaction with the outside world to the daring rescue mission put into place to try to save them.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lost in Shangri-La.  It was a rare case of a non-fiction book where both the content and the writing exceeded expectations.  What happened to the three survivors was fascinating and I found it hard to put the book down, so keen was I to find out what would happen to them next.  This is one of those true stories you couldn't make up, full of adventure from the moment the plane crashed into the jungle.

I was also impressed with Zuckoff's writing style.  He relays the events clearly and at a good pace, adding background information but not overwhelming the reader with it.  I especially appreciated the sections where the survivors interact with the native tribespeople - Zuckoff included the impressions of the survivors and the natives, making it easy to see the frequent miscommunication.  Given the amount of research Zuckoff had conducted and the fact that he had travelled to New Guinea to interview the native population, these sections fascinated me.  The survivors were thought of as spirits descended from the sky heralding the end of their civilisation as it currently existed.

Whilst all of the book was written at a brisk pace, I much preferred the earlier sections straight after the crash as there was a greater sense of tension due to the danger the survivors found themselves in.  I did enjoy reading about the resuce mission but at this point the danger had passed so I was less invested in the text.  I would also liked to have read a bit more about what happened to the natives after the survivors left; Zuckoff does let us know what life is like for them now but I wanted the details - how did their way of life finally change forever?

Lost in Shangri-La is one of the most engaging non-fiction texts I've read for quite some time.  It will appeal to anyone who enjoys a good adventure story. 

Source: TLC book tours
First Published: 2011
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Want to read more?
The rest of the tour stops can be found here.

23 comments:

  1. Wow! So glad you liked it! I love background information but agree it can be overwhelming sometimes. That's great that the author found a good balance.

    Thanks for being on the tour!

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    1. Thanks Trish! I agree that balance is tricky in a lot of non-fiction books, so I was pleased that Zuckoff had got it right.

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  2. I've read quite a few books based on journeys to Shangri La, but this would be more amazing as it is based on real adventures...
    Thank you for the review! Do visit and follow!
    http://riversihaveknown.com/

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    1. What other books on Shangri La have you read? Would you recommend them?
      I think you would definitely enjoy this book if you're already interested in the area.

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  3. This sounds like a great read! I think it is so important for a non-fiction writer to explore both sides of a story, so it's great that the author interviewed the survivors and the people of the tribe.

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    1. You're right about exploring both sides of the story. I wanted to read more about Zuckoff's trip to meet the tribespeople.

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    2. Time for a sequel, perhaps? :)

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  4. This was already on my radar - but your great review has pushed it up the list! Sounds much better rounded than a simple adventure account.

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    1. I was surprised by this book, I expected it to be good but I didn't expect it to be that good!

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  5. I've heard a lot of good things about this book, and I'm glad to see you liked it as well. It sounds like the author did his homework!

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    1. Anna, Zuckoff had definitely done his homework, made the book much more interesting to read :)

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  6. I love the cover -- it makes me wish it was a novel but I love that it sounds like a compelling piece of non-fiction. Looking forward to your review of A Lady Cyclist's Guide... it was a pseudo-DNF for me. :(

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    1. Do you not read non-fiction Audra? If it's wasn't true, it would make a fantastic story!

      I finished Lady Cyclist yesterday and I utterly adored it. But then I guess I was always going to as I love historical fiction, armchair travelling, Islamic culture and dual narratives.

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    2. Sam, I rarely read non-fiction for whatever reason -- altho I am reading more and more these days. (In fact, today's review is for non-fiction -- I think my fifth for 2012!)

      I so thought I'd love ALCGTK for all the reasons you mentioned but Frieda's story line left me so cold! I found myself skipping her to just read Eva and Co. but that left me with some holes toward the end.

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    3. I did see your review although I know next to nothing about The Gilded Age! I agree that Frieda's story was weaker but I found Tayeb very interesting so that compensated for me. What holes did you find?

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    4. Well, mostly not knowing how Frieda/Tayeb's story connected with Eva's!

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    5. But Frieda was Al-Lien/Irene's granddaughter, unless I have completely read that wrong....

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    6. See -- I missed that -- but I seriously skimmed toward the end. I just didn't have the patience to get there!

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  7. This sounds very engaging. I think this will be my beach read!

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  8. I have a mild obsession with New Guinea. I'm going to have to find this one ASAP. (incidentally, if you have read Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel, it paints a terrifying picture of life in PNG.

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  9. Oh, this sounds like it hit the spot for you! I have a newly-minted rule of thumb on non-fiction that if the title has a lot of "spark" words, it probably will disappoint, but sounds like this is the exception that proves the rule!

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