Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura HillenbrandMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finding a life story like this one is a once in a lifetime opportunity for an author. Louis Zamperini seemed to live a host of lives, each one pushing the limits of the human experience: Olympic runner, pilot, castaway, prisoner of war, haunted veteran.
Hillenbrand's writing is clear and elegant - it was a long book, but the story flew past. Her extensive research comes alive on the page, and the plot never loses focus as non-fiction sometimes can. The story she tells is one of the most incredible human experiences I can think of, and plumbs both the darkest depths of depravity and the greatest tests of spirit. I was reading this simultaneously with 1984, and the fictional dystopian torture prisons were put to shame.
It's not all pain and suffering, though. There's all the antics, mischief and sabotage you'd expect of prisoners of war, their determination only getting stronger in the face of abuse. The strength that these prisoners take from each other's company is far more than the sum of its parts.
This book gets a place of honour on my True Tales of Harrowing Adventure shelf. Terrifying, enraging and ultimately uplifting.
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