Reading a nonfiction book can be dicey. I have read some that were so scholarly that I felt I needed a Ph.D. to get through them. Others, especially Erik Larson's books, safely navigate the waters between well-researched and eminently readable. Douglas Brunt's account of Rudolf Diesel's life and mysterious disappearance falls into this later category.
In September 1913, a body was found floating at sea, and although it was not recovered, items found on it led family members to believe it was that of Rudolf Diesel, who went missing on a crossing of the English Channel. How did he come to be in the water? Did he accidentally go overboard? Was it suicide? Or, more ominously, could he have been murdered?
Documenting the life of this unique individual who rose from poverty to invent one of the most critical engines in history, this book details not only the many obstacles Diesel overcame but also brings to life the era and the people around him. He fought an uphill battle trying to convince the industrial world of the superiority of the Diesel engine and its application to everyday life. Diesel was an inventor and a humanitarian whose vision of a better, less polluted world was a life goal.
This book is part biography and part page-turning mystery. It is both insightful and suspenseful, with a twist I bought into. The arguments about what happened to Rudolf Diesel on that fateful crossing are well-reasoned and clearly presented. I now have a better appreciation of the Diesel engine and the man behind it.
5/5 stars.
For more information:
