Sue Recommends Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

The author of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand, pens another winner with Unbroken: a World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. She has the ability to weave a story of facts into a spellbinding tale that the reader must constantly remind herself/himself that this is a real person, Louis Zamperini, who experienced the glory of being an Olympic runner in Germany in 1936 and in World War II fought to survive a plane crash and the Japanese POW camps.

Hillenbrand did her homework with interviews, diaries, memoirs, family letters, and government documents. Unbroken begins with the life of Louis Zamperini as a juvenile delinquent and transitions to his competitiveness as an athlete with a family who loves him dearly. The skills he learned in this part of his life allowed him to survive the degradations and inhumanity of the 3 years in the POW camps. The final part of his life reveals how difficult it was to continue with life after being finally rescued at the end of the war.

Mr Zamperini (see the video clips on his webpage), now 94, wrote his own memoir, Devil at my Heels, if you would like to read more about him. You might also enjoy the videos on You Tube. SH