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Dead Wake Erik Larson

Dead Wake By Erik Larson

Dead Wake by Erik Larson


$22.99
Condition - Very Good
5 in stock

Summary

On 1 May 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool. The passengers - including a record number of children and infants - were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, its submarines had brought terror to the North Atlantic.

Dead Wake Summary

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic Greyhounds and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship - the fastest then in service - could outrun any threat. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way towards Liverpool, forces both grand and achingly small - hubris, a chance fog, a closely-guarded secret and more - converged to produce one of the great disasters of history. It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.

Dead Wake Reviews

Gripping, superbly well-researched...he ratchets up the tension as the doomed ship speeds towards the inevitable. Though you know it's going to happen, you keep praying that it won't, right up until the moment when the torpedo strikes. You feel this way because Larson makes you care...Thanks to Larson's vivid narrative, you are there with those passengers in the thick of it. It may have happened 100 years ago, but this masterpiece made it feel like yesterday. -- James Delingpole MAIL ON SUNDAY A fascinating, well-researched read. Kate Atkinson With practised skill Larson confronts the emotional pathos of wartime tragedy. -- Iain Finlayson THE TIMES Vivid...Larson tells his story well. -- Andrew Holgate SUNDAY TIMES Larson's irresistibly pacey narrative moves between the various scenes of action, conjuring them up in vivid detail...the sources are remarkable...[his] detailed conversational endnotes are an added bonus. -- Lucy Moore LITERARY REVIEW

About Erik Larson

Erik Larson is a prize-winning journalist and narrative historian. His books include Isaac's Storm, Thunderstruck and In the Garden of Beasts and have combined sales of nearly 6 million copies and been published in 14 countries. His No.1 bestseller The Devil in the White City won an Edgar Award and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Non-Fiction Award. He lives in Seattle.

Additional information

GOR006507280
9780857521811
0857521810
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Transworld Publishers Ltd
20150312
448
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Dead Wake