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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Unavailable
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Unavailable
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Audiobook13 hours

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

Written by Laura Hillenbrand

Narrated by Edward Herrmann

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award

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.

Editor's Note

Among the greats…

Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” is one of the greatest works of nonfiction written in our time. It’s an engrossingly detailed look at one soldier’s life from juvenile delinquent to Japanese POW, with many remarkable triumphs and defeats in between. By turns gruesome and awe-inspiring.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 16, 2010
ISBN9780739319703
Unavailable
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Author

Laura Hillenbrand

Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the number-one bestseller Seabiscuit, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. It was made into a major international film, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. She lives in Washington, D.C.

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Reviews for Unbroken

Rating: 4.468516343300747 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

3,478 ratings388 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "They had an intimate understanding of man's vast capacity to experience suffering, as well as his equally vast capacity, and hungry willingness, to inflict it."

    This is an amazing, true story of redemption, resilience, and forgiveness. If the story was not true it would be almost ridiculous and unbelievable. I credit the author for including the stories of more than the main character, as there are several heros in this book. It does bog down a bit, but selective skimming made it work for me. The story of the WW2 in the Pacific is not well known to me, quite horrific. Cannot wait for the bookclub discussion!

    Someone should write a book about Laura Hillenbrand, the author, as she is also an amazing, heroic woman!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Louis Zamperini's life is told in this amazing account of his childhood, life during WW2, and post-war. Hillenbrand does a great job of telling his story and accompanying it with historic details that just adds to the story. Parts of his life are quite disturbing and will stay with me forever. However, his resilience is just incredible. One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. A great book for for history buffs, book clubs, and for those wanting to be inspired by another man's perseverance.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a fantastic book. I couldn't believe it all really occurred in history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An absolutely amazing story about family, friendship, survival and forgiveness. This is one book I will definitely read again and again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow, what fantastic nonfiction storytelling. I didn't know a thing about the subjects, and was both horrified by the depth of human depravity experienced by so many men, and also amazed at the final-final act of the story (this one has at least 5 acts, and would have been a great book after the traditional 3rd act).

    Very worthwhile in audiobook form also.

    I won't say more, because the story builds so well that it should be experienced, even if I'm way too late to spoil it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely eye opening story. Very much enjoyed reading this book. Would suggest to anyone that wants a better idea on what happened to Pacific POWs to read this.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    DNF at 10%This is 100% not my thing. I didn't even make it to the raft. I think the writing is probably fine, but the laundry list of things I didn't like was just too long by midway through chapter 4 to keep going.How can you bring up the eugenics era in California without mentioning race? She listed all the other groups that were targeted for non-racial reasons yet failed to mention black people. Why omit that? 5 more letters and a comma to avoid whitewashing history. How hard is that?Also, I was completely unimpressed with the whole boys-will-be-boys attitude towards his chronic thievery. Apparently if you can run fast, having no ethics is just hijinks. Last, I was bored. This is totally subjective, and I know lots of folks probably find this exciting, but the blow by blow of the races bored me to tears. I suppose to a certain extent it was my fault. I had no idea whatsoever that the person this book was about was an athlete. The only athletes I actually know the names of are known to me more for political, antiracist, or feminist reasons. I don't care about sports at all. I just don't care enough at this point to listen to the part about the war. Especially since, as other reviewers have noted, this seems like it might have some creative history in it.The narration was fantastic though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to this book on CD and it felt like listening to fiction in terms of the fast flow and incredible events. Louie Zamperini, a 1930s Olympic runner, joins the Air Force and is shot down over the Pacific. His survival is detailed in the book in a fascinating way with incredible amounts of detail that don't get in the way of the story. I did not feel like fast forwarding at any time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I know I'm four years late to the party on this one. But it's great. Straightforward yet spellbinding.

    The man at the center of the story kept multitudinous scrapbooks throughout his life -- one covering 15 years or so weighed 63 pounds. The detail that Hillebrand was able to mine for this story really shows; it reads almost like fiction, but with very few "must have" or "probably" qualifiers. There are a ton of facts in here, strikingly well-presented.

    Of note: I learned that there are two types of beriberi (which has long been one of my favorite disease names; yeah, I was a weird kid): "wet" and "dry", and that both are caused by a thiamine deficiency.

    *Cue music* The More You Know...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don't think I could live through a week of what this poor man went through. What a tough story of American prisoners of war in Japan during World War II. This book is a fascinating study of both human endurance and human cruelty. An important read for any lovers of history or anyone interested in a great story of what a human being can live through.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Can't recommend enough.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Real eye opener about many facets of life in the first half of the 20th century. Following this amazing American life teaches you a thousand things about America, the Olympics, WWII, Japan. etc.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An excellent biography, honest and vivid. It is amazing the levels of cruelty human beings can inflict on each other, and this book certainly displays how the sick individual can exploit a systemic racism and national triumphalism to justify such cruelty. However, Hildebrand also shows how equally amazing is the ability of humans to withstand such cruelty, individually and in support of each other.

    Here also though is a clear picture of the lasting effects of war and torture on people how have survived them. Zamperini's faith helps him find a way out of the hate and substance abuse that could have destroyed him. Not all are so able or so fortunate.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing story of an Olympic athlete who was a bombardier in WW2, crashed in the Pacific and endured 47 days on a liferaft before being captured by the Japanese. Like many PoWs of the Japanese, he suffered incredible hardship and treatment, but survived badly damaged psychologically.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Outstanding!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Laura is an amazing story teller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating, amazing story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A must read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Summary: Louis Zamperini channeled his boyhood troublemaking into a love of running, where he discovered he was good enough to win races not only in his home state of California, but also all the way to the Berlin Olympics. When the U.S. entered World War II, Zamperini joined the Army Air Forces, becoming part of the crew of a B24 bomber in the Pacific theater. When the plane crashed into the ocean in 1943, Louis and two of his crewmates made it aboard a tiny raft, where they would stay - dealing with sharks, dehydration, starvation, and sunstroke, for an incredible forty-six days. But that was not the worst ordeal they would face, because they were not rescued by the American forces, but captured by the Japanese, and spent the rest of the war in a Japanese POW camp, under conditions frequently too horrific to be imagined.Review: I thought this book was amazingly compelling, although not necessarily the most unbiased portrayal of Zamperini's life, or of America's role in the Pacific theater of WWII. I read this book for one of my book clubs, and part of our discussion focused around whether biographies can ever truly be unbiased, especially when they are based (as this one is) largely on testimony of the biography subject himself, mostly 60+ years after the events of the story have taken place. This especially bothered me in the early parts of the book, where Hillenbrand describes Zamperini's childhood as being full of thievery, fighting, and vandalism, but she treats it all with an "aww, shucks, isn't that charming, boys will be boys" attitude: "In a childhood of artful dodging, Louie made more than just mischief. He shaped who he would be in manhood. Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, he was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him." I understand that humans are storytelling animals, that we want every detail to neatly fit in to help build the story. I also understand that part of the point of this book is to try to tease out what allowed Louie to survive so much, when so many others in his situation would not - and did not. But real life is not literature, and not every detail eventually fuels the plot, and so this passing over of bad behavior as a roguishly charming character quirk made me suspicious throughout the rest of the book that Hillenbrand was glorifying her subject and her story beyond what the facts could support.But even if Hillenbrand is subject to casting every action and every decision by Zamperini in the post-facto light of heroics, the story itself, even stripped to its barest facts, is so incredible that I found the book incredibly compelling. The first third or so, involving Zamperini's childhood, running career, and early war career, to be somewhat slow going, possibly for the reasons mentioned above. But as soon as he and his crewmates were in that raft, I was completely hooked. I finished over half of this book in a single day, barely putting it down to eat or drink. Stories of survival under impossible conditions are pretty universally interesting, I think; it's impossible to read something like this without wondering what you would do, or if you could make it. And while I don't necessarily think that being a survivor automatically makes one a hero (another topic from our book club discussion), it does make for an amazing and inspirational tale. Zamperini's story was one I hadn't heard before (nor do I really know much about the Pacific front of WWII in general - almost everything I've read has been about the war in Western Europe), and Hillenbrand's good about including enough details that I felt like I had a good idea of the context surrounding the more personal story. Overall, I found this book rather biased, and maybe trying to sell me too hard on its thesis about heroism and resilience and hope, but still a fascinating and compelling read. 4.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: This book was so all over the place a few years ago that I imagine that most people that it would appeal to (World War II buffs, biography fans, generalized non-fiction-ophiles) probably already have it on their radar, but if you are any of those things, or even if you just like amazing true stories of what human beings are capable of enduring, then Hillenbrand's telling of Zamperini's story is worth your time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent -- so glad I read the book before the movie. I am so grateful for the men and women who gave their lives for freedom during World War II.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A really stunning story, most people simply don't live a life like Louis Zamperini, with extreme ups and downs. Starting off as youth with a pennant for stealing and committing minor crimes, his efforts were channeled into track, resulting in his participation in the 1936 Olympics. However, he ended up serving in WWII, was in a plane which crashed into the Pacific, survived for over a month on a life raft in the ocean (tormented by sharks all the while), before being captured by the Japanese and subsequently enduring torture for years before the war concluded. This tale was partly inspiring and partly harrowing and very intense at times. I can't say I enjoyed reading as much as I would say it offered a window into an amazing life I am grateful I have not experienced.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The whole book was amazing (and sometimes shocking). I was surprised to find myself crying at Louis' religious awakening after he returned home. I usually find that kind of thing sappy, but it really struck me powerfully the way it was written here. While I listened to the audiobook, I found it was mixed up in my mind with Life of Pi and A God in Ruins, and I had to keep reminding myself that this one is nonfiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the early chapters it was hard not to compare Unbroken, unfavorably, with Boys in the Boat, another book about young male athletes and the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In those early chapters I could not help but feel that Hillenbrand's treatment of the transatlantic crossing of the U.S. team, her description of Berlin, even her biographical portraits, lacked the depth and intimacy of Daniel Brown's. But as Hillenbrand expands the breadth of her coverage of Luis Zamperini as a World War Two pilot, prisoner of war, and veteran survivor, the biography picked up steam and excitement and the portrait of Zamperini grew in complexity and depth. The chapters of his survival on a raft, adrift in the Pacific, have the suspense of the best page turners. Yet, ultimately, while the book improves as it covers more ground, despite Hillenbrand's many interviews with Zamperini, for some inexplicable reason one has the feeling that at some level she fails to capture him as deeply and movingly as Brown portrayed Joe Rantz. Sure, we get a sense of Zamperini's mischievousness, his incredible survival skills, his physical and mental suffering both as a POW and later. Yet, to some degree the man remains a cipher.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such an interesting book. The true story of a soldier who survived weeks on a raft after his plane went down in the ocean and then survived months as a Japanese POW. I loved the fact that he was painted as a real person with good and bad characteristics. The book was well written and the story was fascinating. I would definitely recommend this book.This book was so much more interesting than Hillenbrand's other book "Seabiscuit."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very suspenseful; a true story of Louis Zamperini, his life as an troubled youth turned to Olympic runner and then his horrific experience during WW II. It is very descriptive and makes one really realize the horrors and atrocities that went on with the prisoners during that time frame. My heart broke for him as well as his family. A must read for anyone interested in WW II history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Author does a compelling job of bringing these people to life, particularly Louie and the other POW's. What a wealth of research she did. This was the side of the war we didn't hear much about.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hillenbrand's latest book is the true story of Louie Zamperini, son of Italian immigrants, Olympic runner, and WWII bombardier. Like so many young men during the 1940s, he enlisted in the armed forces to fight the Axis powers. Louie joined the US Army Air Force in the autumn of 1941. While on a search for crash survivors, mechanical problems caused his plane to crash almost a thousand miles from Oahu killing all but three. The raft lacking much in survival gear, the three survived on little but whatever rainwater they could catch and fish and birds they could catch and eat. After 33 days, one of the three died. They floated for two additional weeks under grueling conditions until they were rescued by the Japanese Navy and transported to a POW camp, where they were severely beaten, starved and mistreated until the end of the war, about three years. After his release and his dignity stripped, he returned home suffering what is known now as PTSD using alcohol in an attempt to bury the past.

    This was a difficult book to rate. During my reading, I alternated in my opinion whether to give it four or five stars. The book is one of man's ability to survive under horrendous conditions and Louie's resolve to survive when I'm sure others would have given up and died. Although many have considered this book a favorite of theirs, I could not because of the descriptive experiences of Louie's suffering.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Incredible and compelling story of survival and determination. Louis Zamperini is a truly admirable man and Laura Hillenbrand does him justice here. If you want a true story of human endurance and capacity of human forgiveness, this is your book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book quickly became one of my all time favorite books.