For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.

But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones - all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.

No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.

Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors - former enemies of their country. As the men's marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.

Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May's vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children's faces. But the procedure was filled with gambles, some of them deadly, others beyond May's wildest dreams. Beautifully written and thrillingly told, "Crashing Through" is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man's choice to explore what it means to see-and to truly live.
Praise for the National Bestseller "Crashing Through":
"An incredible human story [told] in gripping fashion . . . a great read."
"-Chicago Sun-Times"
"Inspiring."
"-USA Today"
"[An] astonishing story . . . memorably told . . . May is remarkable. . . . Don't be surprised if your own vision mists over now and then."
"-Chicago Tribune"
"[A] moving account [of] an extraordinary character."
"-People"
"Terrific . . . [a] genuinely fascinating account of the nature of human vision."
"-The Washington Post"
"Kurson is a man with natural curiosity and one who can feel the excitement life has to offer. One of his great gifts is he makes you feel it, too."
"-The Kansas City Star"
"Propulsive . . . a gripping adventure story."
"-Entertainment Weekly
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE"