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  1. $18.19 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II

by Jeff Shaara

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A modern master of the historical novel, Jeff Shaara has painted brilliant depictions of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, and World War I. Now he embarks upon his most ambitious epic, a trilogy about the military conflict that defined the twentieth century. The Rising Tide begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation’s most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict.

As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany’s ally Japan launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war.

Through unforgettable battle scenes in the unforgiving deserts of North Africa and the rugged countryside of Sicily, Shaara tells this story through the voices of this conflict’s most heroic figures, some familiar, some unknown. As British and American forces strike into the “soft underbelly” of Hitler’s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.

More than an unprecedented and intimate portrait of those who waged this astonishing global war, The Rising Tide is a vivid gallery of characters both immortal and unknown: the as-yet obscure administrator Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose tireless efficiency helped win the war; his subordinates, clashing in both style and personality, from George Patton and Mark Clark to Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. In the desolate hills and deserts, the Allies confront Erwin Rommel, the battlefield genius known as “the Desert Fox,” a wounded beast who hands the Americans their first humiliating defeat in the European theater of the war. From tank driver to paratrooper to the men who gave the commands, Shaara’s stirring portrayals bring the heroic and the tragic to life in brilliant detail.

A new level of accomplishment from this already acclaimed author, The Rising Tide will leave readers eager for the next volume of this superb saga of the war that saved and changed the world.

From the Hardcover edition.

Review:

Praise for Jeff Shaara

The Rising Tide

“This is Jeff Shaara at his best, giving us another superb historically grounded novel of one of the most dramatic struggles of World War II.”

–George McGovern

“The wonderful first volume of a planned trilogy . . . Shaara evokes the agony of desert warfare and the utter chaos of an airborne assault. . . . [A] sprawling, masterful opening act.”

–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

To the Last Man

“A gripping account of World War I.”

–General Tommy R. Franks

“[To the Last Man is] the best novel about the Great War since Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which it greatly surpasses in depth, scope, and intensity.”

–John Mosier, author of The Myth of the Great War

From the Hardcover edition.

Synopsis:

A master of the historical novel, Shaara begins an ambitious trilogy about the conflict that defined the 20th century. With painstaking historical detail and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events of World War II in brilliant detail.

About the Author

Jeff Shaara is the New York Times bestselling author of To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure–two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize—winning classic The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Tallahassee. Visit the author online at www.JeffShaara.com.

From the Hardcover edition.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
katknit, July 9, 2009 (view all comments by katknit)
Jeff Shaara made an admirable attempt to complete his father's Civil War series, but his sequels, valuable though they are, could not hold a candle to The Killer Angel. Well, Jeff has done a lot of writing since then, and his WWII series, if The Rising Tide is a fair indication, matches the work of his father. What Michael Shaara did for the Civil War, his son is doing for the Second World War. One of the marks of good historical fiction, for me, is the way it prompts me to start researching stuff on the internet. And that's what I found myself doing in Tide. Another of telling sign happens when I find myself living what the characters are going through, and in Jeff's chapters on the tank battles between Rommel and the Allies, I felt the awe. To a lesser extent, only because this topic receives less coverage, is his portrayal of the training and daring of the paratroopers. There are many similar scenes in Tide - POW camps, stress disorders, command failures - that truly bring home the complexity of the topic to readers who have never experienced warfare at any level. The only other WWII series that does this so well is Herman Wouk's Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.

The Rising Tide is a valuable addition to WWII fiction.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780345461384
Subtitle:
A Novel of World War II
Author:
Shaara, Jeff
Publisher:
Ballantine Books
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
War & Military
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Italy -- Sicily.
Large Print:
Y
Publication Date:
September 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
536
Dimensions:
8.06x5.22x1.19 in. 1.01 lbs.

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