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.

© Copyright 2011 by Ballantine Books, a division of Random
House, Inc.