{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260426T102348Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307408876?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0307408876","authors":["Erik Larson"],"book_id":"9780307408877","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/dead-wake-0307408876","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307408877.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","description":"#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania “Both terrifying and enthralling.”— Entertainment Weekly “ Thrilling, dramatic and powerful. ” —NPR “ Thoroughly engrossing. ” —George R.R. Martin On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot -20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history. It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history. Finalist for the Washington State Book Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, LibraryReads, Indigo","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780307408877","publication_date":"20160322","publisher":"Crown","slug":"dead-wake","subtitle":"The Last Crossing of the Lusitania","title":"Dead Wake"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRA006010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Maritime History","score":0.7735,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Naval History","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"World War I History","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRA006010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Maritime History","score":0.7735,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Naval History","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"World War I History","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027090","confidence_band":"high","label":"World War I History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"high","label":"Naval History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037070","confidence_band":"high","label":"20th-Century History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Maritime History","score":0.7735,"slug":"maritime-history"},{"label":"Naval History","score":0.7536,"slug":"naval-history"},{"label":"World War I History","score":0.7536,"slug":"world-war-i-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in detailed historical narratives about World War I","Those who appreciate suspenseful nonfiction with multiple perspectives"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Nathaniel Philbrick"],"book_id":"9780141001821","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141001821.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":24.7491,"title":"In the Heart of the Sea","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141001821"},{"authors":["Erik Larson"],"book_id":"9780307408853","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307408853.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":24.2885,"title":"In the Garden of Beasts","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780307408853"},{"authors":["John U. Bacon"],"book_id":"9781324094647","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324094647.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.5512,"title":"The Gales of November","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324094647"},{"authors":["David Grann"],"book_id":"9780307742490","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307742490.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.4744,"title":"The Wager","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780307742490"},{"authors":["Lynn Vincent","Sara Vladic"],"book_id":"9781501135941","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781501135941.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.4615,"title":"Indianapolis","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781501135941"},{"authors":["Lincoln Paine"],"book_id":"9781101970355","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101970355.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.4356,"title":"The Sea and Civilization","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101970355"},{"authors":["Hampton Sides"],"book_id":"9780525565703","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525565703.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.3642,"title":"The Wide Wide Sea","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525565703"},{"authors":["Caroline Alexander","Nicholas Boulton","Penguin Audio","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780142004692","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780142004692.jpg?v=20260426T102348Z%3A2026-04-26T10%3A23%3A48Z","score":22.3202,"title":"The Bounty","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780142004692"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history buff gifts"],"label":"History","score":0.6462,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.198,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:new york times best sellers"],"label":"York","score":0.1443,"slug":"york"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:new york times best sellers"],"label":"Times","score":0.1443,"slug":"times"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Maritime disaster, World War I, Historical suspense.","Pacing: mixed tempo with quieter and high-intensity stretches.","Story elements: hunter and hunted, secret intelligence, tragic hubris."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"mixed","reader_fit":["Readers interested in detailed historical narratives about World War I","Those who appreciate suspenseful nonfiction with multiple perspectives"],"themes":["Maritime disaster","World War I","Historical suspense"],"tropes":["hunter and hunted","secret intelligence","tragic hubris"]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":164280,"goodreads_reviews_count":14643,"quality_score":1}}