In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body and spirit.
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline and blood. Then, on the ocean surface appeared a face. It a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. He became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft.
His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
