A sequel to James Hilton's 1933 classic, Lost Horizons, on a hidden valley of permanent youth in Tibet. The time is the 1960s and Hugh Conway, the hero of Hilton's book, returns to Shangri-La to save the inhabitants from the evil designs of a Chinese Communist general who has found a map to the place.

“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly compelling and deeplysatisfying read!" —Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoffunleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War IIrescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S.military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, and David Grann’s The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoff’s masterfullyrecounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery injungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII.

A chronicle of a kayak team's quest to make the first descent through the dangerous Tsangpo Gorge describes how the four expert members of the team took on an adventure that ended in tragedy.

It was Sunday afternoon on December 7th at the home of Charles Reed. His wife, daughter and six year old son Chip hear the radio report that Pearl Harbor is under attack by Japanese planes. Charles learns days later his brother stationed at Wheeler Field was killed, which ignites an uncontrolled permanent hatred for the Japanese which his son Chip quickly inherits. Thirty six years later, Chip Reed, a senior airline pilot and successful real estate investor, loses his wife and son in a head on crash in her Japanese sports car hit by a Japanese pickup truck. A year later he buys a B-25, has it restored and named “Ruptured Duck. After the show, he is in a real dogfight with a Japanese pilot flying a Zero fighter from the show which blows up in his flight path causing severe damage to his plane and forced to crash land killing his best friend. While recuperating he learns his life will be cut short due to a blood disease. He makes plans to settle his grievances and hate for the Japanese and makes plans to have revenge with the Japanese automaker for killing his uncle, his wife and son and best friend. With his plane completely restored, he tells the Chinese Government he wants to take his plane of tour of China visiting the towns and cities the Doolittle Raiders escaped through. His plan was approved and he ships his plane to China to begin his mission to end his life flying into the auto maker in Tokyo who killed his family and best friend. Chip Reed will have to outsmart the Chinese and Japanese defense systems before he can reach Tokyo.

Almost all of the Himalayas had been mapped by the time the Great Game - in which the British and Russian empires fought for control of Central and Southern Asia - reached its zenith in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Only Tibet remained unknown and unexplored, zealously guarded and closed off to everyone. Britain sent a number of spies into this forbidden land, disguised as pilgrims and wanderers, outfitted with secret survey equipment and tasked with collecting topographical knowledge, and information about the culture and customs of Tibet. Among them was Kinthup, a tailor who went as a monk's companion to confirm that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra were the same river. Sarat Chandra Das, a schoolmaster, was also sent on a clandestine mission, and came back with extensive data and a trove of ancient manuscripts and documents. Bells of Shangri-La brings to vivid life the journeys and adventures of Kinthup, Sarat Chandra Das and others, including Eric Bailey, an officer who was part of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903. Weaving biography with history, and the memories of his own treks through the region, Parimal Bhattacharya writes in the great tradition of Peter Hopkirk and Peter Matthiessen to create a sparkling, unprecedented work of non-fiction.