Shadow Divers
by Robert Kurson
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson holds a highly rated rating of 4.26 out of 5, based on 16.9K reader ratings. First published in 2004. The book spans 335 pages.
About Shadow Divers
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Kurson |
| Published | 2004 |
| Pages | 335 |
| Genres | Non-Fiction, History, Biography & Memoir, Mystery & Thriller, Science |
| Average Rating | 4.26 / 5.00 |
| Total Ratings | 16,917 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What genre is Shadow Divers?
Shadow Divers is categorized as Non-Fiction, History, Biography & Memoir, Mystery & Thriller. Its primary genre classification is Mystery & Thriller.
Is Shadow Divers worth reading?
Based on 16.9K reader ratings, Shadow Divers has an average score of 4.26 out of 5.00, which is considered "Highly Rated."
How many pages is Shadow Divers?
Shadow Divers has 335 pages.
Who wrote Shadow Divers?
Shadow Divers was written by Robert Kurson. It was first published in 2004.
What is the ISBN for Shadow Divers?
The ISBN-13 for Shadow Divers is 9780965925080.0.
Data sourced from community book ratings and reviews. Last updated: April 15, 2026
