BOOK REVIEW: DEAD WAKE by Erik Larson

DEAD WAKE: THE LAST CROSSING OF THE LUSITANIA
Erik Larson
Crown Books
Non-Fiction

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, 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 surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—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. 

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 toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all 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 and 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 Woodrow 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 whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.

MY REVIEW:

Riveting! Erik Larson is quite possibly the best non-fiction writer alive today. I've read all his his books, and this is one of his best. Weaving together strands from various story lines to finally culminate in the tragic sinking of the Lusitania by a German torpedo, Larson brilliantly brings to life that fateful moment that eventually led to the United States entering World War I, and bringing that war to its end.

Larson's books are equally compelling for both history buffs and fiction lovers alike. His books read like great fiction, keeping you turning page after page, and wishing the story would continue after the last page.

Recently named Best Non-Fiction Book of 2015 by Goodreads readers, DEAD WAKE should be at the top of everyone's TBR list.