01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 24, 2005

The tale of two deep-sea divers and what they find 230 feet below the Atlantic Ocean has been selected as this year's work in a statewide reading and community discussion project.

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson will be this year's book for Reading Across Rhode Island, a program designed to get people across the state reading the same book and talking about it.

The book tells the adventure of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler who in 1991 found a World War II German U-boat 230 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, 60 miles off the New Jersey coast.

"The main goal of [Read Across Rhode Island] is to involve all Rhode Islanders in a community dialogue focusing on books and reading," said its honorary chairman, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty.

This is the program's fourth year and Shadow Divers is its first nonfiction selection. Last year's book was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein. Previous books were The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and Wish You Well by David Baldacci.

The reading project kicks off Jan. 28 at a statewide literacy conference at Rhode Island College where Kohler will be the keynote speaker. The conference will focus on how people can generate ideas on integrating the book into classrooms, bookshops, libraries and reading groups. The project concludes with an event May 6 at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet with the author and both divers.

Reading Across Rhode Island is a literacy project of the Rhode Island Center for the Book and the Providence Public Library. It is sponsored this year by Fidelity Investments, local radio talk show Reading with Robin and Random House, the publisher of Shadow Divers. More information about the program can be found at: www.readingacrossri.org