Tidal Wave
The Pilots, the Princess, and the Enemy Ace - A True Story of Courage and Survival in WWII
Will be published approx. on 3. November 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-593-72527-6 (ISBN)
Description
From the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Higher Call, Spearhead, and Devotion comes Tidal Wave, a sweeping new epic set in an untold arena of World War II.
It’s summer 1943, and the world is on fire.
Lieutenant Ernie Poulson, a 22-year-old outdoorsman from Utah, finds himself at the controls of America’s most advanced bomber, the B-24, brought to North Africa for a top-secret mission.
On the far side of Europe, Lieutenant Constantin Cantacuzino, Romania’s most daring ace, duels Soviet fighters on the Eastern Front while searching for purpose in an unwinnable war.
In Nazi-aligned Romania, Princess Catherine Caradja walks a razor’s edge between loyalty to her country and quiet defiance, as German forces dig-in around the oil refineries in her backyard.
And in the royal palace, 22-year-old King Michael of Romania—mocked and sidelined by a Nazi-backed dictator—quietly plots to seize his nation’s destiny before it is lost forever.
In Tidal Wave, Adam Makos brings these lives together in a sweeping saga of courage and survival, set against history’s most audacious air raid: the tree-top assault on “Hitler’s gas station” at Ploesti, Romania. What begins in disaster on August 1, 1943, sparks bonds no one could have foreseen—alliances between enemies—that will decide whether these men and women are consumed by war, or seize their chance at escape and redemption.
Drawn from years of extensive research and told with Makos's signature cinematic intensity, Tidal Wave will remind you that even in war's darkest hours, humanity has a way of breaking through.
It’s summer 1943, and the world is on fire.
Lieutenant Ernie Poulson, a 22-year-old outdoorsman from Utah, finds himself at the controls of America’s most advanced bomber, the B-24, brought to North Africa for a top-secret mission.
On the far side of Europe, Lieutenant Constantin Cantacuzino, Romania’s most daring ace, duels Soviet fighters on the Eastern Front while searching for purpose in an unwinnable war.
In Nazi-aligned Romania, Princess Catherine Caradja walks a razor’s edge between loyalty to her country and quiet defiance, as German forces dig-in around the oil refineries in her backyard.
And in the royal palace, 22-year-old King Michael of Romania—mocked and sidelined by a Nazi-backed dictator—quietly plots to seize his nation’s destiny before it is lost forever.
In Tidal Wave, Adam Makos brings these lives together in a sweeping saga of courage and survival, set against history’s most audacious air raid: the tree-top assault on “Hitler’s gas station” at Ploesti, Romania. What begins in disaster on August 1, 1943, sparks bonds no one could have foreseen—alliances between enemies—that will decide whether these men and women are consumed by war, or seize their chance at escape and redemption.
Drawn from years of extensive research and told with Makos's signature cinematic intensity, Tidal Wave will remind you that even in war's darkest hours, humanity has a way of breaking through.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Illustrations
MAPS, 30 BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS T/O, 16PP BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO INSERT
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
566 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-593-72527-6 (9780593725276)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Hailed by the Associated Press as “a masterful storyteller,” Adam Makos is the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call, Spearhead, and Devotion—now a major motion picture starring Glen Powell. Inspired by his grandfathers’ service, Makos crafts unforgettable stories of America’s veterans, blending raw human drama with vivid, close-up military action. The Los Angeles Times places him “in the top ranks of military writers,” a title earned through immersive research that has taken him from flying a World War II bomber to embedding on a Special Forces raid in Iraq—and even journeying into North Korea in search of a missing American aviator.