Shadow Divers: News and Reviews

"A pulse-quickening real-life thriller...written with great you-are-there intensity and dynamic verve."

—New York Times

"A masterful work...Remarkable...Captivating. Shadow Divers will in all likelihood join the company of such compelling and successful narratives of men doing deadly battle with nature as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm."

—Washington Post

"Absorbing...Even a great story needs the right storyteller, and Chatterton and Kohler couldn't have asked for anyone better than Kurson. From U-boat history to the mortal dangers of diving...Kurson explains it all, even as he's spinning a fantastic yarn that happens to be true. All he leaves out are the boring parts."

—Newsweek

"Exquisitely researched and superbly told...will leave even armchair adventurers gasping for breath." (Critic's Choice...four stars)

—People

"An irresistible sea yarn."

—Time

"Riveting... People who risk their lives and family bonds to pursue their passions can create some of the best non-fiction. Perhaps the most startling elements of Shadow Divers are anecdotes about the dangers of diving. [And] the final part of the book is perhaps the most moving."

—USA Today

"Kurson breathes life into Shadow Divers with consummate skill. His research is meticulous but he wears it lightly, his characters are skillfully drawn, and the narrative is so well paced and constructed that it develops a hypnotic, almost suffocating tension... But it is far more than mere adventure; this is also a haunting, painful story of obsession and its attendant costs. For once, the comparisons with The Perfect Storm are not out of place; this is a memorable story, beautifully told."

—The Sunday Times of London

"Shadow Divers is not only a gripping adventure story, but a tale of dogged persistence and growing friendship. Mr. Kurson vividly captures the hazardous world of diving and the competition and camaraderie of the divers themselves."

—Wall Street Journal

"Exciting...Some of the most haunting moments occur on land, as when the divers research the lives of the doomed German sailors whose bones they swim among. Once underwater, Kurson's adrenalized prose sweeps you along in a tale of average-guy adventure."

—The New Yorker

"You know a book has you when you avoid looking at its photo display or final pages for fear of spoiling its surprises. Robert Kurson has written a genre-mixing sprint of a narrative, an adventure story that is also a genuine historical mystery."

—New York Times Sunday Book Review

"Riveting...Kurson's descriptions of some of these forays inside the sub were so harrowing that I frequently caught myself holding my breath...A great book."

—Chicago Tribune

"Thrilling...An amazing story which Kurson tells in a dynamic and agile journalistic style. Shadow Divers is a must-read and a genuine page-turner."

—Associated Press

"Mesmerizing."

—Entertainment Weekly

“The pages are drenched in action and suspense, rivalry and cussedness, technical detail in wondrous plenty, commitment and loyalty, and, most amazing of all, archival sleuthing”

—Boston Globe

"Superlative...If the publishers are dreaming of another Perfect Storm, they may get their wish."

—Publishers Weekly

"Riveting reading, full of suspense...tightly plotted and remarkably assured."

—Outside

"Shadow Divers surely ranks with Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air in the realm of nonfiction adventure."

—Chicago Sun-Times

"The book is so suspenseful, dramatic and filled with shocking turns that if it were fiction, it would be written off as just plain silly."

—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Beautifully executed...Your interest in aquatic matters can start with a glass of water and end with a shower and you will still recognize this true story as one of the most engaging tales you'll read this year."

—New York Daily News

"A crackling, tension-ripped narrative."

—Kansas City Star

"Kurson marvelously weaves this tale of men who come to the same place in life from opposite sides of the playing field."

—Orlando Sentinel

"A riveting tale told beautifully... Shadow Divers is a masterfully suspenseful account of how a handful of American recreational divers discovered and identified a German U-boat that historians had long thought lost."

—Portland Oregonian

"The phrase 'page-turner' is bandied about too cheaply, but Shadow Divers is the real thing."

—Dallas Morning News

"A great beach read... Shadow Divers is a riveting adventure about the dangers of underwater exploration [that] becomes an intellectual quest."

—San Jose Mercury News

"The layperson need not even have an interest in deep-sea diving to appreciate Shadow Divers—an interest in history will do; or, short of that, an interest in human beings, in courage and obstinacy, glory and folly."

—Columbus Dispatch

"This is a great sea adventure indeed."

—New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Heart-pounding adventure."

—(Critic's Choice) Reader's Digest

"Filled with neat technical details, red-meat prose and blood-curdling underwater sequences, Shadow Divers is the kind of madly engrossing mystery from which you want never to resurface."

—Time Out New York

"A riveting tale...Readers of Robert Kurson's engrossing Shadow Divers may also stop breathing, if only to conserve oxygen, as the divers at the heart of this underwater odyssey literally gamble with their lives to solve a wartime secret discovered in the waters off the New Jersey shore."

—Newark Star-Ledger

"Remarkable... Told with edge-of-your-seat suspense. Comparisons to The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air will be numerous. That will put Shadow Divers into well-deserved company as one of the best adventure books published since they rocked the publishing world in the late 1990s.

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Strange worlds, these, explored by Mr. Kurson on his literary voyage. With a shifting focus yet total immersion in his watery subject, the author has brought clarity and energy to create a true adventure story out of obscure passions.

—Washington Times

"Robert Kurson demonstrates that tales of obsession, in a master writer's hands, also can be as addictive as chocolate truffles. The Chicagoan has taken several unlikely plot elements and brilliantly woven them together to create one of this summer's most compelling page-turners."

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Shadow Diver's author Robert Kurson blends the natural excitement of the tale well. He knows when to abbreviate. He gets out of the way to let the breathtaking (literally) events unfold. His research reads solidly and his sources are extensive."

—Buffalo News

"Some of the best whodunits are true stories, and this is one of them."

—Albany Times Union

"Nearly unbelievable...Sometimes truth is more suspenseful, more riveting, than any novelist could hope to create."

—Deseret Morning News

"Edge-of-your-seat reading...Reads like an adventure novel."

—Wreck Diving Magazine

"A well-paced tale of adventure on the high seas...buffs of adventure will find this a pleasure."

—Kirkus

"Fascinating...All of these elements...military history, mystery, action tale, ethnography ...combine to make this book very hard to put down."

—Booklist

"Shadow Divers is a mystery, an action-adventure, an education on deep-wreck diving, a drama, and at times, a tragedy. Its climax is so harrowing and emotional that anything Hollywood has to offer pales in comparison."

—Bookpage

"The strength of Shadow Divers is its inherent humanity...One of the most compelling, well-written accounts of descending into the darkness of the ocean to touch the past."

—Naval History Magazine

"Compelling as much for its underwater thrills as for its two main characters...Shadow Divers tells the riveting tale of Chatterton and Kohler's adventures with the same edge-of-your-seat intensity as The Perfect Storm."

—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Shadow Divers has all the thrill of discovery as a favorite of several years ago, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. But what ultimately sets it apart and makes it such a great read is not the discovery itself, but what inspires those who seek to discover."

—Rocky Mountain News

"You can throw away any preconceived notions you might have about historical or biographical works, or tales from the sea. Shadow Divers is a book for everyone, a - dare I say it? - Kon-Tiki for the twenty-first century. It doesn't get any better than that."

—Bookreporter.com

"This book has adventure written all over it...Once you dive into Kurson's estimable book, you will not surface again till the end."

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An extraordinary and dramatic tale and the best thing I've read all year.

—The Sunday Independent (Ireland)

Masterful.

—The Calgary Herald

Shadow Divers is an adventure, a tragedy and a glimpse at the devotion and work it takes to accomplish something truly remarkable in any field.

—Knight Ridder Newspapers

It is rare that one encounters a book that combines a factual story of historic and scientific significance with a prose style that reads like fiction. This is a book that could hardly have been better written and is a pleasure to read.

—Lloyd's List

A true tale, but it reads like a gripping thriller.

—Hartford Courant

Kurson is masterful in his description of the dangers of shipwreck diving.

—Richmond Times Dispatch

In a word: deep.

—Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)

Enthralling.

—Mosman & Lower North Shore Daily (Australia)

A plot line and the kinds of characters that evoke an Indiana Jones.

—Monterey County Herald

A great sea adventure indeed.

—Times-Picayune

Shadow Divers is not only a compelling adventure story of deep-sea diving but also an instructive revelation of the pitfalls of history, and a unique full-circle tale of the life, death and rediscovery of one of World War II's legendary German U-boats.

—Winston-Salem Journal

A great beach read and a riveting adventure.

—Charlotte Observer

A spectacular debut.

—Florida Times-Union

Perfect beach reading.

—Wilmington News Journal

Kurson's writing is evocative and powerful. This is an exceptional read.

—Grand Rapids Press

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