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

4.7 out of 5 stars 76,529 ratings

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible true story of survival and salvation that is the basis for two major motion pictures: Unbroken and Unbroken: Path to Redemption.

“Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”—
The Wall Street Journal

Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by
Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography

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.

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.
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Popular Highlights in this book

From the Publisher

The war came to an end His own battles had just begun The basis of a major motion picture & sequel

People says “Hillenbrand’s writing is so cinematic. You don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”

The Wall Street Journal says “A powerfully drawn survival epic.”

Time says “Hillenbrand tells this story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.”

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit, comes Unbroken, the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know. --Juliet Disparte

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Eight years ago, an old man told me a story that took my breath away. His name was Louie Zamperini, and from the day I first spoke to him, his almost incomprehensibly dramatic life was my obsession.

It was a horse--the subject of my first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend--who led me to Louie. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an amazing odyssey in World War II. I knew only a little about him then, but I couldn’t shake him from my mind. After I finished Seabiscuit, I tracked Louie down, called him and asked about his life. For the next hour, he had me transfixed.

Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded.

On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.

That first conversation with Louie was a pivot point in my life. Fascinated by his experiences, and the mystery of how a man could overcome so much, I began a seven-year journey through his story. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. Along the way, there were staggering surprises, and Louie’s unlikely, inspiring story came alive for me. It is a tale of daring, defiance, persistence, ingenuity, and the ferocious will of a man who refused to be broken.

The culmination of my journey is my new book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I hope you are as spellbound by Louie’s life as I am.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan's most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand's heart-wrenching new book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestselling Seabiscuit. But it's just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable: a disciplined champion racer who ran in the Berlin Olympics, he's a wit, a prankster, and a reformed juvenile delinquent who put his thieving skills to good use in the POW camps, In other words, Louie is a total charmer, a lover of life--whose will to live is cruelly tested when he becomes an Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. The young Italian-American from Torrance, Calif., was expected to be the first to run a four-minute mile. After an astonishing but losing race at the 1936 Olympics, Louie was hoping for gold in the 1940 games. But war ended those dreams forever. In May 1943 his B-24 crashed into the Pacific. After a record-breaking 47 days adrift on a shark-encircled life raft with his pal and pilot, Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips, they were captured by the Japanese. In the "theater of cruelty" that was the Japanese POW camp network, Louie landed in the cruelest theaters of all: Omori and Naoetsu, under the control of Corp. Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a pathologically brutal sadist (called the Bird by camp inmates) who never killed his victims outright--his pleasure came from their slow, unending torment. After one beating, as Watanabe left Louie's cell, Louie saw on his face a "soft languor.... It was an expression of sexual rapture." And Louie, with his defiant and unbreakable spirit, was Watanabe's victim of choice. By war's end, Louie was near death. When Naoetsu was liberated in mid-August 1945, a depleted Louie's only thought was "I'm free! I'm free! I'm free!" But as Hillenbrand shows, Louie was not yet free. Even as, returning stateside, he impulsively married the beautiful Cynthia Applewhite and tried to build a life, Louie remained in the Bird's clutches, haunted in his dreams, drinking to forget, and obsessed with vengeance. In one of several sections where Hillenbrand steps back for a larger view, she writes movingly of the thousands of postwar Pacific PTSD sufferers. With no help for their as yet unrecognized illness, Hillenbrand says, "there was no one right way to peace; each man had to find his own path...." The book's final section is the story of how, with Cynthia's help, Louie found his path. It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand's narrative of the atrocities committed (one man was exhibited naked in a Tokyo zoo for the Japanese to "gawk at his filthy, sore-encrusted body") against American POWs in Japan, and the courage of Louie and his fellow POWs, who made attempts on Watanabe's life, committed sabotage, and risked their own lives to save others. Hillenbrand's triumph is that in telling Louie's story (he's now in his 90s), she tells the stories of thousands whose suffering has been mostly forgotten. She restores to our collective memory this tale of heroism, cruelty, life, death, joy, suffering, remorselessness, and redemption. (Nov.) -Reviewed by Sarah F. Gold
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003WUYPPG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2010
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 12.7 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 671 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679603757
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 76,529 ratings

About the author

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Laura Hillenbrand
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Laura Hillenbrand (born May 15, 1967) is an American author of books and magazine articles. Her two best-selling nonfiction books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption have sold over 10 million copies, and each was adapted for film. Her writing style is considered to differ from the New Journalism style, dropping verbal pyrotechnics in favor of a stronger focus on the story itself. Both books were written after she fell ill in college, barring her from completing her degree. She told that story in an award-winning essay, A Sudden Illness, which was published in The New Yorker in 2003. She was 28 years with Borden Flanagan, from whom she separated by 2014.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
76,529 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this biography compelling and well-written, describing it as one of their favorite books and better than the movie adaptation. The book features a true story of survival against all odds, with one customer noting it's based on real life events. Customers praise the character development, highlighting Louie Zamperini as a true American hero, and appreciate the power of the human spirit throughout the narrative.

16,848 customers mention "Story quality"16,474 positive374 negative

Customers find the book's story compelling and inspiring, describing it as an amazing tale of survival.

"...Great book. Very well written...." Read more

"Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing story about a group of amazing survivors, all members of the "Greatest Generation"...." Read more

"...Great read; thank you!" Read more

"...It was just such a great book because it had related to my personal interests...." Read more

6,085 customers mention "Insight"6,078 positive7 negative

Customers find the book inspiring and enlightening, highlighting the power of the human spirit and the story of courage.

"Overview: an inspiring yet horrifying true story of an olympic athlete/WWII hero/inspirational speaker and leader...." Read more

"...Inspiring and overwhelmingly emotional. Read it." Read more

"...It is one of the most incredible stories about survival and courage in the face of the horrors and atrocities of war you will ever read...." Read more

"...not only unique and unusual, but also of tremendous strength and determination...." Read more

5,903 customers mention "Writing quality"5,034 positive869 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as excellently detailed and unforgettable.

"...I really like books that are well written and make you smile. So why did I read this one?..." Read more

"...Well written, captivating." Read more

"...This book was a true eye opener. Very well written, researched and the pictures of some of those involved helped make the human connection...." Read more

"Know going into this that it is a true story. And while it is very well written..." Read more

3,544 customers mention "Readability"3,350 positive194 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as one of their favorite books of all time and better than the movie adaptation.

"...Unbroken is, in a word, amazing--easily one of the best books I read in 2010. It's written by Laura Hillenbrand who also penned Seabiscuit...." Read more

"...Excellent and humbling story that should be required reading for all Americans...." Read more

"...This is a must read, or must hear, book for you as you're going through some emotionally challenging times." Read more

"Must read! Read before you see the movie for the most impact...." Read more

2,507 customers mention "Strength"2,282 positive225 negative

Customers praise the book's strength, describing it as an amazing story of survival against all odds, with a strong will to survive and unforgettable narrative.

"...and inspirational and highlights the importance of strength, resilience, and never giving up...." Read more

"I highly recommend this book, Unbroken. Louie Zamparini is an Olympic distance runner...." Read more

"...I’m inspired and touched by their tenacity and strength...." Read more

"...His life itself was one of suffering, endurance, and perseverance...." Read more

2,014 customers mention "Character development"1,990 positive24 negative

Customers praise Louie Zamperini's character development, describing him as a real hero with an incredible human spirit.

"'Unbroken' is the life story of Louis Zamperini, an amazing man who survived a plane crash in World War II that resulted in him spending the..." Read more

"...I love a story that ends in redemption. This man was a great man to endure what he went through. The Japanese were very cruel to their captives...." Read more

"...the name - only to find out that this was in fact written about an incredible man and the true story of the horrors of his journey!..." Read more

"...The bravery, unbelievable sacrifices, devotion, patriotism, and tenacity of "The Greatest Generation" should never be forgotten...." Read more

1,115 customers mention "Heartbreaking story"785 positive330 negative

Customers find the book's story heartbreaking, bringing them to tears as it tells of suffering.

"...in a very raw, graphic, (this book is not for the squeamish), heartbreaking and heartwarming way, the indomitable spirit of mankind, and how one man..." Read more

"...It is funny, sad and at times utterly heartbreaking...." Read more

"...It is very sad, but it is amazing how Louie survived through all this. The Lord was definately with him...." Read more

"Heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Incredible story and very well written. Enjoyed all the pictures, would have loved to see more...." Read more

926 customers mention "Authenticity"837 positive89 negative

Customers find the book authentic, describing it as better than fiction and based on true accounts.

"...A book like that doesn't come along very often. This true and well documented story is about Louie Zamperini, a juvenile delinquent..." Read more

"...listen a little longer... Laura Hillenbrand's writing is graceful, honest but not heavy-handed...." Read more

"This book has every human emotion it it. It is historical, psychological and spiritual at the same time. It's a drama and a thriller...." Read more

"...this book to anybody looking for well written, life affirming, non-fiction." Read more

WONDERFUL BOOK! GREAT WWII STORY ABOUT WHAT OUR VETERANS WENT THROUGH FOR OUR FREEDOMS
5 out of 5 stars
WONDERFUL BOOK! GREAT WWII STORY ABOUT WHAT OUR VETERANS WENT THROUGH FOR OUR FREEDOMS
What a fantastic book! I read it in only a few sittings. It was so engaging I couldn't put it down. My father also flew in B-24 Liberators in WWII. My father, Hank Culver, flew with Jimmy Stewart, the movie actor-turned bomber pilot. They both flew some of the most dangerous missions of the war together in the same squadron - 703rd Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group - with the U.S. 8th Air Force based at Tibenham, England. I used this book as a reference for the writing of my first book, Nine Yanks a and a Jerk, and my forthcoming books, Daylight Raiders and Son of a Gunner. See my website page www.sonofagunnerb24.com for more details. You did a wonderful job Lauren. Your book is a great tribute to Mr. Zamperini and the Greatest Generation!
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2014
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    There is a powerful phrase among those sympathetic to Holocaust victims and survivors: Never again! This phrase has two meanings: in one sense, it’s particular to the sufferings of the Jewish people (never again allow another Holocaust against the Jews). In another sense, it expresses a universal message for all humanity: Let’s never again allow another genocide based upon discrimination and hatred of any group of people. I interpret the phrase “Never again!” in the second, broader sense, which I believe is the most meaningful. Although the Holocaust was certainly about the massacre of Jews as Jews, any such genocide against any group of people is ethically wrong. For this reason, we should do whatever we can, as a human race, not to allow this to happen to anyone ever again. In this second sense of the phrase “Never again!”, I believe that the incarceration, starvation, torture and killings of American prisoners of war during WWII by the Japanese belongs to the history of the Holocaust.
    Remarkably, American prisoners of war captured by the Nazis fared much better than those captured by the Japanese. The Nazis, who killed ten million innocent people in concentration camps and via shooting squads throughout Europe, were rather careful with non-Jewish Allied prisoners of war. Generally speaking, Allied POW’s lived in much better conditions than Jewish, Polish, Russian and Ukranian prisoners and had a much better chance of survival.
    By way of contrast, American POW’s were in extreme danger when captured by the Japanese. They were subjected to similar mistreatment and conditions that Jewish prisoners had to endure at the hands of the Nazis: starvation, filth, disease, physical and psychological torture, slave labor and death. Of the 132,000 POW’s from the U.S., Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Holland forced into concentration and labor camps in Japan, more than one quarter of them—and about forty percent of the Americans—died in captivity. By way of contrast, only one percent of American POW’s held by the Nazis died in captivity. (see Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, New York: Random House, 2010, 314-315).
    Although the Japanese didn’t have crematoria, similarly to the Nazis against the Jews, they adopted a “kill all” policy towards American POW’s during WWII. The Japanese policies were inherently racist. Much like the Nazi vision of a superior Aryan race, the Japanese policy was also informed by racial hatred, xenophobia and a sense of supremacy not only vis-à-vis the Americans, but also towards their Chinese, Koreans and European captives. Hence there are striking similarities between the racist outlook and behavior of the Japanese under the Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and that of the Germans under Adolf Hitler, his ally in war.
    It is therefore not surprising that the remarkable memoir of resiliance and survival, Unbroken, a New York Times best seller in nonfiction and soon to be made into a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie, reads like a Holocaust memoir. Beautifully narrated by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken tells the moving life story of Louis Zamperini, a young soldier and star runner of the Berlin Olympics, who defies all odds in his struggle to survive war and captivity. This true story is so incredible that it reads like a Holywood script.
    On May 1943, young Louis Zamperini’s plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The are only three survivers: Louis and two of his friends, who are compelled by misfortune to embark on an Odyssean voyage across the world. They’re stranded on a raft without food or water, drifting for thousands of miles, constantly threatened by bad weather conditions and assailed by sharks. They catch fish using bird meat as bait and collect rain water to stay alive. They patch up the raft when it is pierced by bullets and fight off sharks using their bare hands. Weakened by starvation, thirst, exhaustion and depression, one of them, Francis McNamara (Mac), gives up the fight for survival and perishes before reaching land. The other two, Louis Zamperini and Russell Allen Phillips (Phil), brave a typhoon and make it to an island. The most difficult part of their journey, however, comes not from natural threats but from attacks by fellow human beings.
    They young men are captured by the Japanese, incarcerated, interrogated, then sent to concentration camps for POW’s. Louis is first sent to Ofuna, then to Naoetsu. In those camps, the conditions are inhumane. The goal of their captors, as for the Nazis, is total human degradation. Louis recalls two particularly sadistic guards who got a sexual thrill out of beating and torturing prisoners: Sueharu Kitamura, known as “the Quack”, who beat Louis’s friend, the brilliant Bill Harris, to unconsciousness, and Corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe, dubbed “the Bird,” a vicious psychopath whom prisoners dreaded the most. “The Bird” particularly enjoyed tormenting Louis, the star American athlete. Alternating between savage beatings and fake shows of compassion, this monster became the bane of Louis’s existence, haunting him years after he was freed from captivity.
    Much of Louis Zamperini’s post-traumatic stress disorder after liberation takes the form of nightmares in which he envisions strangling his former tormentor. This doesn’t relieve his pain, however. As the narrator wisely states, “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. In seeking the Bird’s death to free himself, Louie had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant” (Unbroken, 366). Though welcomed as a hero back home, Louis can’t escape the trauma of his war experiences. He drowns his bitter memories with alcoholism and sinks into a deep depression. Religion, along with his supportive and loving family, helps him overcome this last challenge. Louis’s greatest strength, however, stems from his own internal resilience: namely, from the capacity forgive his tormentors without forgetting his painful past. In fact, one of the most compelling messages of this incredible story is let go of the pain, so you can move on, but not of the memory. “Never again!” means, in part, forgive the enemy but never forget the experience, so it can offer wisdom to future generations.

    Claudia Moscovici, Literature Salon
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Resistance is by Laura Hillenbrand. This book is the story of POWs in Japan and about Louis Zamperani, an Olympic athlete and hero of World War II.
    Louis Zamperini was born to Albert and Louise Zamperini, Italian immigrants, in Olean, New York on August 26, 1917. Second child and second son. From time he could walk, he was constantly moving and in trouble. Family moved to California when he was two. He ran from one end of train to the other, his Mother was very worried and told him someone would fall off train if he wasn’t careful. To her chagrin, he did run off the end of the train. Then, he calmly walked along tracks until train returned for him. Told his Mother, he knew she would come back for him. He was a clever, resourceful, bold child and always optimistic.
    Louie idolized his older brother Pete, twenty months older. Pete was the “golden child”. He seemed to always do what was right, was respectful and courteous, and never in trouble, or so it seemed. Many times, he could be seen with Louis when he performed his pranks. He helped Pete look out for their sisters, Sylvia and Virginia.
    Louis got in major trouble in California. He took to stealing, just to get away with it. He gave away everything he stole. He always got away by running. He came face-to-face with the eugenics process of sterilizing those who were different or criminals (stealing was included) when a kid from his neighborhood was said to be “feebleminded, institutionalized, and faced sterilization”. Luckily the boy’s parents were able to keep this from happening. This incident scared Louie straight, or at least he tried.
    When he found a key to the gym, he sold “tickets” at a reduced price to get kids into the basketball games. When caught, the principal punished him by excluding him from sports the first year he was in high school. Pete talked to the principal and finally got him to allow Louie to play sports. This turned out to be good for Louie, he won 10 varsity letters in basketball, 3 in Baseball, and 4 in track as well as setting school records. After high school, he joined Pete at UCLA.
    Pete had coached him in high school in track and continued to do so in college. Louis just got faster. In one meet, he beat the other racers by ¼ mile. He began to look towards running in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He had to run in four races to qualify for the Olympics. In two races, he did quite well, in the third, he didn’t do as well, and he barely made it in the fourth race due to a tie; but he was on his way to the Olympics. Although he didn’t win a medal in the Olympics, he did set a record for running the last lap in 56 seconds.
    When he returned to UCLA, he began training for the 1940 Olympics where it would be more than possible to win the Gold. However, the Olympics were to be held in Japan and Japan released them to Finland. Then, the Olympics were cancelled for 1940 due to WWII.
    He signed up on September 29, 1941 with the Army. They sent him to Houston where they were to train him to be a bombardier. Eventually, he was assigned to a crew which would stay together for a long time and they would become best friends. Finally, he and part of his crew were sent on a rescue mission in an old plane, the Green Hornet. The plane was not in ideal condition; but it was a rescue mission. The plane was destined to crash in the ocean and of the crew, only three were to survive the crash, the pilot Phil, Mac, and Louie. Phil and Louie had flown together from the beginning. Only Phil and Louie were to survive being adrift for 47 or 48 days before being rescued by the Japanese.
    Hillenberg goes on to describe in great detail Louie’s and Phil’s treatment by the Japanese during their capture and their time in the POW camps. For over two years, they languished in the camps, separated from each other. Their families were the only ones who believed they were still alive even though they never appeared on a POW list nor were allowed to write their families. Eventually, Phil did appear on a list and was able to write his family; but this was close to the end of the war. Louie was not. He had been picked out as a special whipping boy for one guard called “Bird”. Bird went out of his way to cruelly beat and pick on Louie as they went from camp to camp. She describes the POWs watching the bombing of Tokyo from their camp and the ordeal they lived even after liberation while waiting on the army to reach them. She goes on to describe Louie’s life after returning to the US and his family. She shows his problems as he attempts to return to civilian life and dealing with PSTD and his nightmares about Bird.
    This book was eventually made into a movie and a version of it designed for children is also in print. The book is well-researched and documented. It is one which should be read by anyone reading about World War II.
    15 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Rose
    5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, enthralling read
    Reviewed in India on July 2, 2020
    I had to buy this book after seeing it was written by laura hillenbrand- Seabiscuit is still one of my favourite books ever! And hillenbrand didn't disappoint. The book takes you through the fascinating and scary life of Louis zamperini. The descriptions of his life as a flight lieutenant nd thereafter as a prisoner of war will have you glued to the book.
    The beauty of hillenbrand's writing is how she converts the most mundane into interesting and gives inanimate objects personalities and characters. Her descriptions of the B24 and other fighter planes are just amazing.
  • santien1008
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buen libro
    Reviewed in Spain on June 5, 2025
    Lo compré a raíz de ver la película y me gustó muchísimo. Muy duro a veces.
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  • Mel in Reading
    5.0 out of 5 stars If you're going to read just one book in 2014, read this book!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2014
    To start with: I honestly think that A PAPERBACK VERSION OF THIS BOOK WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE ENJOYABLE TO READ THAN THE KINDLE VERSION. There are a lot of photos and references all throughout the book. I kept wanting to flip back to previous chapters and remind myself of how Louie's war buddies look like , who's who and flip forward to see the footnotes (presented at the end of each chapter). But this is impossible with a kindle. The only good thing I found about reading a kindle version is that I can easily find definitions of many tech-y war / bomber plane terms which are foreign sounding to me. But I don't think this outweigh the disadvantages I lay out. This is a book so good that you'd want to lend it to all your mates because you believe reading the book will enrich their lifes. So get a paperback version!

    Now let me start with my review.

    Being British and UK based, I don't tend to check out the NY Times best sellers list so I never heard of this book, nor this Louie guy, until my sister mentioned it on her instagram post saying "If you're going to read just one book this summer, read this."

    At times, amazon reviewers ratings are so off they're not to be trusted (Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was one of the worst book I've ever read and I was on a mission to let the whole world know that the book didn't deserve any star rating, never mind the 1600+ 5* rating it got on amazon.com and 250+ 5* rating on the UK website). In this case however, the 5* ratings on the UK and US amazon are well and truly justified. I would have given it 6* if amazon allowed such rating for exceptional circumstance.

    I won't summarise the book nor say much about how incredible the life story of Louis Zamperini was because you can read this in other reviews. What I would say is that his story will surely touch and inspire you beyond measure. Particularly on the first half of the book, you'll read so much cruelties and madness which will repulse you, but in the end, you'll gape in amazement at how much a human body and unbroken spirit can endure.

    I have to also commend writer Laura Hillenbrand for penning Louis's story so beautifully and matter-of-fact-ly. Her writing is so good that I could almost feel Louie's exhilaration when he broke his mile record, his family's sense of loss when the news of his disappearence was delivered, his thirst and desperation as he float on a lone raft in the middle of the vast pacific ocean, his hate towards his captor 'The Bird'. I'll end with my sister's recommendation: If you're going to read just one book in 2014, read this book!
  • James Chartier
    5.0 out of 5 stars Make you feel better
    Reviewed in Canada on May 7, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is an amazing and very helpful book. Very well presented. Highly recommended
  • Andrea Batazzi
    5.0 out of 5 stars un romanzo avvincente
    Reviewed in Italy on February 17, 2013
    Merita di essere letto.una storia vera ed avvincente, che racconta la forza, il coraggio, la caduta ed infine la fede di un uomo straordinario.Bravissima la scrittrice che ci illustra in modo vivido anche un periodo di storia americana.

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