Amy Eklund hosts the BUUF Book Club discussion of Lost In Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckhoff.

Lost in Shangri-La is true-life tale of a group of U.S. military men and women who survived a plane crash in the New Guinea jungle. Shangri-La conjures images of a paradise on Earth, but as this story unfolds the reader learns that this situation was as far from the definition of Shangri-La as one could get. Not only were the survivors faced with lack of food and water but they also landed in the middle of an area inhabited by a fierce cannibalistic indigenous tribe. Their lives were in the hands of a group of brave paratroopers and pilots who worked out a harrowing rescue near the end of World War II.

One of the men on the plane that crashed was St. Joseph resident Corporal Charles Richard (Dick) Miller. This fact is noted directly in the book. Though Miller was killed in the crash, this local tie brings home the story of these brave American soldiers. In addition to facing the enemy on battle lines, our troops had to interact with new and sometimes, hostile, cultures.