Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Title:	Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Author:	Laura Hillenbrand
Year First Published:	2010
Page Count:	496
Synopsis:	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. Â Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. Â It was that of a young lieutenant, the planeâ€™s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.Â So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. The lieutenantâ€™s name was Louis Zamperini. Â In boyhood, heâ€™d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. Â 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. Â 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. Â Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. Â 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. Â Telling an unforgettable story of a manâ€™s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.