Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.47k reviews for:
Unbroken (Movie Tie-in Edition): A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand, Laura Hillenbrand
4.43 AVERAGE
4.47k reviews for:
Unbroken (Movie Tie-in Edition): A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand, Laura Hillenbrand
4.43 AVERAGE
A straightforward account of a crazy POW survival story. Pros: a page-turner, a story worth telling that sheds light on the awful treatment of POWs by the Japanese during World War II, and a deeply researched and footnoted work. Cons: lacks writer's voice and creative structure, nearly succeeds at making an unbelievable story dull.
I’m not big on war books, I enjoyed the humor and found this very educational
One of the most inspiring and life-affirming stories I've read in a long time. This true story is a testament to one man's will to live despite the odds. Read it!
Great book! Incredibly inspirational and very well written.
Brutal. Historically rich. Devastating. Awful. Painfully Raw. Yeah, it's all that.
A family member told me this was one of the best books she's ever read. I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise, as I am leery of both brutality and depictions of Japanese atrocities from WWII.
I'm not exactly GLAD I read this book, but I can't say I didn't learn a wide variety of things historical, moral, and emotional about WWII and the depth of human depravity and resilience.
Louie Zamperini's story from lifeboat to Kwajalein Island, to POW camp under a larger-than-life super-villain, to less terrible POW camp, and back again to torture is so cinematically powerfully presented in this book that I'm surprised it took them this long to make a movie of it.
You couldn't make this stuff up. Not only the Olympic hero who rises from poverty, but the crazy POW camp guards and the B-24 air fights, and the fake socks to steal rice, and the unrelenting misery punctuated by small defiances and the descent into PTSD drinking and redemption by a bible thumper.
Unbelievable. And yet Laura Hillebrand makes everything very, very real in a way that makes my teeth ache like I've taken too big a bite of ice cream in my eagerness to devour Louie's story.
The scene that stands out for me as the epitome of depravity and resilience is where Louie's nemesis, the camp guard "The Bird" forces all 250 enlisted men to punch Louie in the face as punishment for someone else stealing food. For some reason I could barely read that page, my eyes skipped ahead in the text not wanting to let the full import/realization of what that was really sink into my brain.
Anyway, a must-read for any WWII historian. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is triggered by violence and brutality.
A family member told me this was one of the best books she's ever read. I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise, as I am leery of both brutality and depictions of Japanese atrocities from WWII.
I'm not exactly GLAD I read this book, but I can't say I didn't learn a wide variety of things historical, moral, and emotional about WWII and the depth of human depravity and resilience.
Louie Zamperini's story from lifeboat to Kwajalein Island, to POW camp under a larger-than-life super-villain, to less terrible POW camp, and back again to torture is so cinematically powerfully presented in this book that I'm surprised it took them this long to make a movie of it.
You couldn't make this stuff up. Not only the Olympic hero who rises from poverty, but the crazy POW camp guards and the B-24 air fights, and the fake socks to steal rice, and the unrelenting misery punctuated by small defiances and the descent into PTSD drinking and redemption by a bible thumper.
Unbelievable. And yet Laura Hillebrand makes everything very, very real in a way that makes my teeth ache like I've taken too big a bite of ice cream in my eagerness to devour Louie's story.
The scene that stands out for me as the epitome of depravity and resilience is where Louie's nemesis, the camp guard "The Bird" forces all 250 enlisted men to punch Louie in the face as punishment for someone else stealing food. For some reason I could barely read that page, my eyes skipped ahead in the text not wanting to let the full import/realization of what that was really sink into my brain.
Anyway, a must-read for any WWII historian. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is triggered by violence and brutality.
This is a wonderful book and a wonderful author. The writing style is just my style. It is very well researched and the writing a very good composite of the research. It does not read like a research piece but a novel, and that is one of the phenomenal talents that make Laura Hillenbrand's books so memorable, powerful, and involving. This was truly an epic--I can't believe one man (and many men like Louie Zamperini) lived this! Hillenbrand can tell what story will make a book not just good but great.
Louie Zamperini grew up in a poor Italian family, an unmotivated troublemaker. He developed a passion for running because he had a capacity for it, and he ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in a running length that was longer than his personal focus. Before he was able to compete in the next Olympics at his preferred length, WWII began, and he joined the military, flying in an incredible team with a dangerous plane. He experiences a fatal plane crash, life rafting, Japanese internment camps, torture, disease, and PTSD. In any of these experiences alone could he have given up or died but somehow he didn't. With this story and Hillenbrand's writing, this book spectacularly wraps up the epitome of human spirit.
Louie Zamperini grew up in a poor Italian family, an unmotivated troublemaker. He developed a passion for running because he had a capacity for it, and he ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in a running length that was longer than his personal focus. Before he was able to compete in the next Olympics at his preferred length, WWII began, and he joined the military, flying in an incredible team with a dangerous plane. He experiences a fatal plane crash, life rafting, Japanese internment camps, torture, disease, and PTSD. In any of these experiences alone could he have given up or died but somehow he didn't. With this story and Hillenbrand's writing, this book spectacularly wraps up the epitome of human spirit.
I really expected for this to read like a history book and be very dry and difficult to read. But it wasn't at all. I enjoyed the entire book!
Beautifully told. Made me devour this time periods history. I wish my Grandpa were alive to tell me a few things he witnessed or went through during WWII.
one of the most inspiring books ive read. Love his story.