<b>#1 <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • <b>SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • </b>Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by <i>Time</i> magazine • Winner of the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award</b><br><br>On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.<br><br>The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.<br><br>Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.<br><br>In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in <i>Seabiscuit</i>. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, <i>Unbroken</i> is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.<br><br><b>Praise for <i>Unbroken</i></b><br> <br> “Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”<b>—<i>The Wall Street Journal</i></b><br> <i> </i><br> “[A] one-in-a-billion story . . . designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.”<b><i>—New York</i></b><i> </i><br> <br> “Staggering . . . mesmerizing . . . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”<b>—<i>People</i></b><br> <i> </i><br> “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.”<b><i>—The Washington Post</i></b><br> <i> </i><br> “Ambitious and powerful . . . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.”<b><i>—The New York Times Book Review</i></b><br> <b><i> </i></b><br> “Marvelous . . . <i>Unbroken</i> is wonderful twice over, for the tale it tells and for the way it’s told. . . . It manages maximum velocity with no loss of subtlety.”<b>—<i>Newsweek</i></b><br> <br> “Moving and, yes, inspirational . . . [Laura] Hillenbrand’s unforgettable book . . . deserve[s] pride of place alongside the best works of literature that chart the complications and the hard-won triumphs of so-called ordinary Americans and their extraordinary time.”<b>—Maureen Corrigan, <i>Fresh Air</i></b><br> <br> “Hillenbrand . . . tells [this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.”<b>—<i>Time<br></i></b><br>“<i>Unbroken</i> is too much book to hope for: a hellride of a story in the grip of the one writer who can handle it.”<b>—Christopher McDougall, author of <i>Born to Run</i></b>