Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, History, 473 pages.
Hillenbrand recounts the story of Louis Zamperini, a self-described juvenile delinquent, who grows to become a celebrated Olympic athlete. After running in the 1936 games in the 5,000 meters, Louis set his sights on competing in the 1940 games as a miler, and perhaps becoming the first to run that distance in under four minutes. When the war intervened, and the plans of so many people changed, Louis entered the Army Air Corps and served as a B-24 bombardier. When his plane was shot down in 1943, Zamperini and two of his fellow airmen began a horrendous time lost at sea, facing starvation, thirst, sharks, strafing, and madness. When they finally came within sight of land they found that their ordeal was just beginning. As prisoners of the Japanese, Louis had to endure fresh rounds of starvation, as well as disease, and mental and physical abuse in a series of POW camps, while his friends and family were told that he was dead.
Hillenbrand tells the story with great compassion for the airmen and their families and with a gift for pacing and narrative flow. This book packs a big emotional punch,and is well worth reading.
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