Laura Hillenbrand’s stirring and inspirational story of struggle and relentless optimism takes us along the experience of sharing Louie Zamperini’s life.
It is a rousing tale of faith, belief and amazing courage shown by an American soldier who remains unbroken by the ravages of war, shipwreck and torture.
Zamp ‘The Champ‘ Zamperini is a troublesome teen whose brother notices has a talent for distance running. With discipline and training, he makes it on to the Olympic team. And then, the outbreak of WW2 changes everything – and sets him on a life-changing path.
Laura Hillenbrand’s inimitable writing style, at once passionate and deeply researched, yet soul stirring and rousing, ideally matches the tone of a narrative that’s chockfull of ups and downs.
“The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.”
In a rare experience, I was lost in her storytelling.
Any reader of ‘Unbroken‘ joins Zamperini as he steals pastries, runs races, goes to the Olympic Games, joins air raids, and is shot down over the Pacific.
We’re transported by Laura’s brilliant writing onto a lonely raft as it’s adrift in the world’s largest ocean, surrounded by sharks and shot at by enemy planes.
“Such beauty, he thought, was too perfect to have come about by mere chance. That day in the center of the Pacific was, to him, a gift crafted deliberately, compassionately, for him.”
We’re locked up alongside Zamp in an island prison, abused by captors in prisoner of war camps, and finally ‘escape’ from jail – only to find it was really a jump out of the frying pan into the fire!
The word picture Laura Hillenbrand paints in ‘Unbroken‘ is vivid and visual, the images and scenes springing to life in our mind’s eye because of her excellent attention to nuance and detail.
You’ll find yourself cheering for Louie and his fellow soldiers, suffering as he is tortured and tormented by a psychopath Japanese commandant, suffers week after week, month after month, driven only by the thought of one day being free.
“A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain.”
And when it happens, when he’s freed at the end of World War 2, he faces a fresh set of challenges.
‘Unbroken‘ tells a tale that’s proof of the resilience of our human spirit. It is a shared story of each of us, told through the experience of an American soldier who symbolizes the never-say-die attitude that fires every one of us.
There are nice little nuggets and anecdotes that flesh out the long voyage Louie Zamperini took, from an atoll in the Pacific to a prison near Tokyo, and then back to the United States.
In a hard-to-forget scene, Louie finds himself imprisoned in a cave prison on a remote island. He isn’t even sure who his captors are, and every day passes in real danger of his execution. Desperate, despairing, he carves a message into the rocky walls of his cell.
Years later, after he’s transferred to another camp, he runs across another soldier who had spent time in that cell. “I saw your message,” he tells Zamp. “It kept me alive.” The young marine told himself, “If someone else survived this hellhole, I can do it too!”
And he did.
Our smallest actions have consequences. They inspire, touch and impact others. Often, in ways we can hardly know, even imagine.
‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand is full of such little, powerful lessons. Lessons that deeply resonate to inspire. To remind us how much of a joy, treasure and blessing life really is.
Grab your copy of ‘Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption‘ here:
‘Unbroken‘ is now a Hollywood film directed by Angelina Jolie.
Get the DVD of ‘Unbroken’
