Author: Hillenbrand, Laura
Pub: Random House, c2010
Personal ranking: 8/10
Subtitle: A World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption.
This book was passed along to me with a caution that I had to have it finished before March 1, because it has a date with a plane flight that day. It’s being carried to Calgary to the next person who gets to borrow it. (The family has a long-distance lending library going on!)
I’d probably never have picked up this book, let alone purchased it, and I am glad I didn’t miss it.
The book is truly a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. It’s a biography of Louis Zamperini, an American Olympic-grade runner who was shot down in his bomber during WWII. Louis survived the terrifying ditching of his plane in shark-infested waters, but the real hell lay ahead.
This is the long story of his isolation and survival while drifting across the Pacific Ocean for more than 40 days on a tiny raft, nearly starving to death, and finally washing ashore on a Japanese-held island. Then he endures two long and frightful years of abuse, starvation, dehydration, beatings, and humiliation at the hands of his cruel and abusive Japanese captors. It’s a wonder that he survived.
This true story, which flows like the best fiction, is a very engrossing read by the same author who wrote “Seabiscuit.” It’s well worth one’s time.
On the Boardwalk 