![]() ![]() military base in Hollandia, on the northern coast of uncharted New Guinea a soldier’s chance discovery a year earlier of Baliem Valley, a verdant area about 150 miles into the interior, with its hundreds of native villages surrounded by gardens and the doomed flight of officers and enlisted personnel out on a joy ride to view this much-talked-about land of Stone Age people from the air. Drawing on the young WAC survivor Margaret Hastings’ diary as well as journals and interviews, the author hones in on life at the U.S. ![]() In this well-crafted book, Zuckoff turns the long-forgotten episode into an unusually exciting narrative. Learning about the event while researching another subject, the author recognized the ingredients of a terrific tale: a beautiful young WAC, a hidden valley reminiscent of the Shangri-La in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, primitive tribal people and a daring air rescue. On May 13, 1945, an American transport plane carrying 24 servicemen and women crashed into a mountain in the tropical jungles of Dutch New Guinea (now Papua), leaving three survivors. Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, 2009, etc.) delivers a remarkable survival story. ![]() Former Boston Globe reporter Zuckoff (Journalism/Boston Univ. ![]()
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