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

Book Description

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.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.

中文：

书名：《坚不可摧：关于生存、韧性和救赎的二战故事》

1943年5月的一个下午，一架陆军空军轰炸机坠入太平洋，然后失踪，只留下一片碎片和浮油、汽油和鲜血。然后，在海洋表面，出现了一张脸。这是一位年轻的中尉，飞机的轰炸机驾驶员，他挣扎着爬上救生筏，把自己拉上了救生筏。就这样，第二次世界大战最不寻常的冒险之一开始了。

中尉的名字叫路易斯·赞佩里尼。在孩提时代，他是一个狡猾而不可救药的罪犯，破门而入，打架打架，逃离家去乘火车。在十几岁的时候，他就把自己的挑衅引导到了跑步中，发现了一种惊人的天赋，正是这种天赋让他进入了柏林奥运会，并在四分钟一英里的视线内。但当战争到来时，这位运动员已经成为一名飞行员，开始了一段旅程，这段旅程导致了他注定要失败的飞行，一个小木筏，并漂流到未知的地方。

在赞佩里尼前面是数千英里的开阔海洋，有跳跃的鲨鱼，有下沉的木筏，有口渴和饥饿，有敌机，还有更大的考验。当被逼到忍耐的极限时，赞佩里尼会用独创性来回应绝望；用希望、决心和幽默来忍受痛苦；用叛逆来回应野蛮。但他的命运，无论是胜利还是悲剧，都将悬在他意志的破损钢丝上。

在她期待已久的新书中，劳拉·希伦布兰德以她在 海味饼干。《坚不可摧》讲述了一个人走向极端的难忘故事，证明了人类思想、身体和精神的韧性。亚马逊月度最佳图书，2010年11月出自：畅销书作者劳拉·希伦布兰德 海味饼干，来了 完好无损这是一个鼓舞人心的真实故事，讲述了一个人经历了一系列令人难以置信的灾难。在令人回味的、直接的描述中，希伦布兰德展开了路易·赞佩里尼的故事，他是一名少年罪犯，后来成为奥运会赛跑运动员，后来成为军队英雄。在太平洋上空的一次例行搜索任务中，路易的飞机坠入大海，在他接下来的三年里发生的事情，是一个让你紧盯书页的故事，急切地等待故事的下一个转折，同时也害怕它。你会为这个人欢呼，尽管他遭受了巨大的堕落，但他以某种方式保持了自己的自我和人性，你会想要与你认识的每个人分享这本书。 &gt；8211；朱丽叶·迪斯科

的故事 完好无损 劳拉·希伦布兰德著

八年前，一位老人给我讲了一个故事，让我惊叹不已。他的名字叫路易·赞佩里尼，从我第一次和他说话的那一天起，他几乎令人费解的戏剧性生活就让我着迷。

这是一匹马，是我第一本书的主题。 海味饼干: An American Legend是谁带我找到了路易。当我研究大萧条时期的赛马时，我不断地读到关于路易的故事，这位20世纪30年代的田径明星在第二次世界大战中经历了一次令人惊叹的奥德赛。当时我对他知之甚少，但我无法将他从我的脑海中动摇。在我做完之后 海味饼干，我找到了路易，给他打电话，询问他的生活情况。在接下来的一个小时里，他让我目瞪口呆。

20世纪20年代在加利福尼亚州长大的路易是一个地狱杀手，他偷走了他能带的所有可吃的东西，上演了精心策划的恶作剧，打架打架，并困扰着当地警察。但在十几岁的时候，他成为了美国有史以来最伟大的赛跑运动员之一，参加了1936年柏林奥运会，在那次比赛中，他表现出了轰动的表现，与希特勒相遇，并在帝国总理府附近偷走了一面德国国旗。第二次世界大战开始时，他正在为1940年奥运会做准备，并接近传说中的四分钟一英里。路易加入了陆军航空兵，成为一名轰炸机手。他驻扎在瓦胡岛，在惨烈的战斗中幸存下来，包括一场史诗般的空战，最终他的飞机坠毁，机身上留下了大约600个洞，一半机组人员受了重伤。

1943年5月的一个下午，路易执行了一项搜寻失踪飞机的任务。在太平洋上空的某个地方，他的轰炸机的引擎发生了故障。飞机坠入海中，路易和另外两名男子被困在一只小木筏上。他们漂流了几个星期，漂流了数千英里，忍受着饥饿和极度的口渴，忍受着跳上救生筏试图把他们拖出来的鲨鱼，忍受着日本轰炸机的机枪袭击，忍受着40英尺高的台风。最后，他们发现了一个小岛。当他们划向它时，他们并不知道，一艘日本军用船只潜伏在附近。路易的旅程才刚刚开始。

与路易的第一次谈话是我生命中的一个转折点。被他的经历以及一个人如何能克服如此多的秘密所吸引，我开始了一段为期七年的旅程，讲述他的故事。我在日记、信件和未出版的回忆录中找到了它；在他的家人和朋友、奥运战友、前美国飞行员和日本退伍军人的记忆中；在遥远的奥斯陆和堪培拉档案中被遗忘的文件中。一路走来，惊喜连连，路易出人意料的鼓舞人心的故事让我眼前一亮。这是一个关于勇敢、挑衅、坚持不懈、独创性的故事，以及一个拒绝被打破的人的凶猛意志。

我旅程的顶峰是我的新书， 《坚不可摧：关于生存、韧性和救赎的二战故事》。我希望你和我一样被路易的生活迷住