Lost in Shangri-La Audiobook By Mitchell Zuckoff cover art

Lost in Shangri-La

A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Lost in Shangri-La

By: Mitchell Zuckoff
Narrated by: Mitchell Zuckoff
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.79

Buy for $19.79

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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
Air Forces Anthropology Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Expeditions & Discoveries Oceania World War II Transportation Aviation Veteran Military War Inspiring US Army Solider True Adventure
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

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

What listeners say about Lost in Shangri-La

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,165
  • 4 Stars
    930
  • 3 Stars
    398
  • 2 Stars
    76
  • 1 Stars
    29
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,015
  • 4 Stars
    785
  • 3 Stars
    273
  • 2 Stars
    45
  • 1 Stars
    20
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,121
  • 4 Stars
    666
  • 3 Stars
    286
  • 2 Stars
    58
  • 1 Stars
    20

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Lost in a Long Tale

I was looking forward to hearing this story, especially after listening to Unbroken. Sad to say the story was nowhere near as captivating as Unbroken. I felt the author veered off too often into background history that did not add to the story. Usually I am sad to end a book. This time I was happy to be back from Shangri-La!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting Thriller, Yet True

“Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II” is an exciting, true adventure story, as thrilling as any fictional “thriller.” It took the talent of an expert researcher, reporter, and author, Mitchell Zuckoff, to bring this long-forgotten WWII rescue saga to life. The book once again shows how ordinary people,both victims and rescuers, when challenged, can do extraordinary, heroic things, and then return to a quotidian existence as survivors. Zuckoff is admirable for letting the story speak for itself and not interjecting himself into the book, although it is clear that tracking down the sources to write this comprehensive and accurate book is itself a very interesting story. I like page turners and “Lost in Shangri-La” will ensnare most readers. The reader was adequate.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

cool story

I saw the writer on the Daily Show and was so glad to have heard it on audible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great story!

Wonderful recount of a long lost fascinating true story of heartbreak and survival at the end of the Pacific war.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best Listen in a long time

An engaging story that proves the old saw "truth is stranger than fiction". A definite must listen for anyone with even a shred of interest in history. Has a Indiana Jones feel to it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Starts off strong, loses some steam in 2nd half

Overall the tale grabbed my attention from the beginning, and it gave me that unique pleasure of an audio book in that it made me happy to wake up on a Monday morning and realize that I was going to get to immerse myself in the story again as I commuted to work. But as the story progressed it just seemed to lose a little steam. In all, it felt like a really good article from a magazine like Smithsonian that had been padded out into a book.

Part of this is not really the author's fault but rather the result of history. In particular I mean how the survivors, temporarily stranded among the native inhabitants of "Shangri-La," were in periodic contact with the outside world including journalists who were intent on keeping a great human interest story alive and selling papers. This whole P.T. Barnum aspect of the story was somewhat depressing, but of course it really happened and was a valid part of the story.

The key point of interest in this tale is the valley dubbed Shangri-La where an isolated group of aboriginals lived. The rescue mission itself, when it finally is carried out, honestly isn't all *that* interesting. I don't think it lived up to the title's claim that this one was "the most incredible rescue mission of World War II."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What a Tale!

Quite the true story. So amazing. Book is too long. Authors takes many diversions from main story. Abridged might be better.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating side story from WW2

Excellent writing and narration of this story of human survival and the unexpected encounter of two cultures.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lars

I really liked this book, and the authors' narration. The fact that this very dramatic story had not "survived," meaning I had never heard about this before, and now has been brought to life again was very moving. A terrific listen - highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating, but ending was abrupt

Would you listen to Lost in Shangri-La again? Why?

This was an excellent account of an actual crash and rescue during WWII. The narrative was very interesting and also educational. My only complaint is that it ended very abruptly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!