Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (2010, Hardcover)

Synopsis
There are many so-called ordinary people whose lives merit the telling to a wide audience, and Louis Zamperini is certainly one of them. Hillenbrand, author of SEABISCUIT, has once again selected an unlikely but immensely appealing champion around whom to center her tale. UNBROKEN is the story of a wild youth, outstanding athlete, and WWII bombardier who became a Japanese POW after surviving an almost unbelievable ordeal at sea. Freed at last, returned to his California home, Zamperini found himself fighting an equally cruel (but for years unnamed) enemy: post-traumatic stress disorder. The second part of his life, post-War, becomes an equally inspiring tale. Interspersed with the author's explorations of the history and culture against which Zamperini's adventures, travails, and triumphs occurred, the book becomes a portrait of an unforgettable individual. UNBROKEN was selected by Publishers Weekly as a 2010 Top 10 Book.

Key Details
Author:	Laura Hillenbrand
Language:	English
Publisher:	Random House, Inc.
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	1400064163
ISBN-13:	9781400064168

Size
Length:	473 pages
Thickness:	1.2 in
Weight:	28.8 oz

Publisher's Note
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, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become 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, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

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.

Industry Reviews
"...Hillenbrand is particularly well suited to tell this inspiring tale. [S]he is intelligent and restrained, and wise enough to let the story unfold for itself. Her research is thorough, her writing (even on complicated, technical wartime topics) crystalline. UNBROKEN is gripping in an almost cinematic way."
(11/21/2010)

"The ideal way to read UNBROKEN would be with absolutely no knowledge of how Mr. Zamperini's life unfolded. Ms. Hillenbrand has written her book so breathlessly, and with such tight focus, that she makes it difficult to guess what will happen to him from one moment to the next, let alone how long he was able to survive under extreme duress."
(11/14/2010)