The Shadow of War : A Novel of The Cuban Missile Crisis

From the bestselling author comes the story of rising conflict between the super-powers that gripped the world, a global war that almost happened: The Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961, the new president John F. Kennedy, inherited an ill-conceived, poorly executed invasion of Cuba that failed miserably and set in motion the events that put the U.S. and the Soviet Union on a collision course that nearly started a war that would have enveloped much of the world. Extensively researched and vividly imagined, The Shadow of War brings to life the many threads that lead to the building crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1962. Told from a multitude of perspectives and voices, from the Russian engineer attempting the near impossible task of building the missile launch facilities in Cuba, to the U.S. Navy commanders who ships are sent to "quarantine" Cuba, to the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, desperately trying to maintain a challenging... New York Times bestselling author Jeff Shaara brings alive the heart-stopping days and nights of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a novel featuring his trademark "you are there" immediacy. Ripe for Jeff Shaara's vivid alchemy of fact-based fiction, here is the Cuban Missile Crisis as readers have never seen it. In addition to the tension-filled corridors of power in Washington, Moscow, and Havana, Shaara takes us to the decks of destroyers encircling the island, playing cat and mouse with lurking Soviet subs, where the wrong move will set off a shooting war; high above to the cockpits of the U-2 spy planes whose reconnaissance was the vital touchstone against fatal uncertainty; and to the shores of Cuba itself, where CIA operatives once plotted to restore a betrayed revolution. The perfect follow-up to Shaara's widely praised novel on the Korean War, The Frozen Hours, The Shadow of War marks an exciting new dimension for Shaara's work, in a novel that is all too relevant today.