Meet The Author Night - Robert Kurson, The Author of Shadow Divers

Yesterday night, I had the opportunity and the pleasure of meeting Robert Kurson,
the Author of Shadow Divers. It was Meet the Author Night sponsored by my local library - the excellent West Bloomfield Township Public Library. Along with other Libraries in the area, the WBTPL had organized a "What Everybody's Reading" program where everyone reads and discusses the same boook and many events are planned around it. Shadow Divers was the book chosen and it was a fantastic choice.

Mr. Kurson is a masterful story teller, and the material for his true story is top rate - how Recreational Scuba Divers found a U-Boat, 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey in 230 feet of water that no one knew was there. The story of the discovery, and the six year long adventure of diving and identifying the wreck as the U-869, is told in a way that appeals to divers and non-divers alike.

The meeting was well attended and Mr. Kurson is a very engaging speaker and gave an excellent telling of how he came to write the book, his experiences with the two main divers in the story, - John Chatterton and Richie Kohler- and his own hilarious and very short foray into scuba diving.

Mr. Kurson also took the time to sign books and chatted engagingly with each person whose book he signed.

I highly recommend the book -- it was a driving factor in my getting into Scuba diving and is a fantastic can't-put-it-down read. In addition, a movie based on the book is due to come out in 2007 to be directed by Ridley Scott.