Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2014 (2010).

This is such an incredible book, and such an incredible story as well. 

Unbroken tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Italian-American growing up in the early 20th century. Louie starts off on "the wrong side of the tracks", but goes on to become an Olympic athlete, running in the Berlin Olympics and meeting Hitler as a result. When the USA joins the war, Louie becomes a bombardier, in charge of releasing bombs from his plane at the right moment. Eventually his bomber crashes and Louie (along with two others) is left in a small life-raft, adrift at sea for 46 days before getting rescued (and subsequently imprisoned) by the Japanese.

I can skim over this partial synopsis in a single paragraph, but to actually read the book is to get far more into the reality of living through these events. Angelina Jolie - who was neighbours with Louie in his old age - directed the movie based on this book and although it is competently made it doesn't give the level of intensity or detail possible in a full biography. And this book is intense. In reading it out to Elise there were parts I skimmed over because of how gruesome they were, something that I don't like doing. The fact that anyone could survive the sorts of things Louie and others like him went through is astounding.

The final part of the book is testament to this. Louie, home from the war, tries to piece his life together and struggles with the demons of trauma that have gripped his life. He is a very broken man and this manifests itself in the struggles Louie has in post-war life. Yet, Louie eventually finds Christ and attributes this with helping him turn his life around and even forgive his captors. Although this is not the main thrust of the book, it is a vital part of Louie's story and adds immensely to the final sections of the work. The book - even without the faith angle - is a powerful and very memorable life story that I would fully recommend, but the hope and redemption that this final stage of Louie's story introduces makes the book a far more uplifting story than it would be without it.

One of my favourite biographies of all.

Completed with Elise, 5 May 2019.

(Elise Books)

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