Left to Die

By Dan Kurzman,

Book cover of Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau

Book description

Examines the mystery and controversy surrounding a devastating tragedy in U.S. naval history--the sinking of the U.S.S. Juneau in 1942, in which nearly seven hundred lives were lost

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Left to Die as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

As a baby boomer, I love all things WWII. I’d always heard about the five Sullivan brothers on the USS Juneau and their devastating demise. So naturally I was drawn to read Kurzman’s book.

Although extremely sorrowful, the author does an amazing job with creating an up close and personal account of this WWII tragedy. From unfathomed suffering and sacrifice of the survivors to the battles of ravenous sharks, I found this book to be gripping and hard to stop reading.

A wrenching WWII true story of the ill-fated cruiser, the USS Juneau, Dan Kurzman writes of the real horrors with incredibly researched details.

Before the ship’s torpedo attack, which was really intended for the USS San Francisco ship, the sacrifices and teamwork of the Greatest Generation sailors impacted me at a personal level. The five Sullivan Brothers’ personal stories gripped me with each turn of the page.

Kurzman’s description of the unfathomed suffering and sacrifice of the survivors, with their battles against delirium in the shark-infested waters, explodes as a gigantic tragedy in the Pacific Theater. Although intensely sad, if…

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