{"product_id":"9780759509696","title":"Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival","description":"\u003cb\u003eA masterpiece of historical adventure, \u003ci\u003eSkeletons  on the Zahara\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the true story of twelve American  sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured  by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish  two-month journey through the perilous heart of the  Sahara.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe western Sahara is a baking  hot and desolate place, home only to nomads and their camels, and to  locusts, snails and thorny scrub--and its barren and ever-changing  coastline has baffled sailors for centuries. In August 1815, the US brig \u003ci\u003eCommerce \u003c\/i\u003ewas dashed against Cape Bojador and lost,  although through bravery and quick thinking the ship's captain, James  Riley, managed to lead all of his crew to safety. What followed was an  extraordinary and desperate battle for survival in the face of human  hostility, starvation, dehydration, death and despair.\u003cbr\u003eCaptured, robbed and enslaved, the sailors were  dragged and driven through the desert by their new owners, who neither  spoke their language nor cared for their plight. Reduced to drinking  urine, flayed by the sun, crippled by walking miles across burning  stones and sand and losing over half of their body weights, the sailors  struggled to hold onto both their humanity and their sanity. To reach  safety, they would have to overcome not only the desert but also the  greed and anger of those who would keep them in  captivity.\u003cbr\u003eFrom the cold waters of the Atlantic to  the searing Saharan sands, from the heart of the desert to the heart of  man, \u003ci\u003eSkeletons on the Zahara\u003c\/i\u003e is a spectacular  odyssey through the extremes and a gripping account of courage,  brotherhood, and survival.","brand":"Little, Brown and Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068327805168,"sku":"9780759509696","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780759509696_p0.jpg?v=1769903954","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780759509696","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}