The Shah is thrown out of Iran and the nations's turmoil becomes world headlines. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, heartbreak and violent death are the foreign helicopter pilots who have been servicing the oilfields.

Over the years, James Clavell produced a phenomenal series of critically acclaimed bestsellers known collectively as the Asian Saga ? King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, Noble House, Gai-Jin. Another novel, Whirlwind, was set in the violent turmoil of Iran after the exile of the Shah in 1979. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, and death are the foreign helicopter pilots who service Iran's oil fields. Their one objective is to make a bold, concerted escape to safety across the Gulf. In Whirlwind, Clavell told the full story of the three weeks it took them to achieve this. In ESCAPE, he drew out just one poignant thread from that epic narrative-the stirring love story of Erikki, a dashing Finnish pilot, and his ravishing and aristocratic Iranian wife, Azedeh, whom he loved beyond safety and politics.