Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (4.5 stars)

Unbroken has been on my reading list ever since I was completely surprised by how much I loved Seabiscuit, not to mention it is also one of the all-time highest rated books on amazon. In fact, it was Hillenbrand's research for Seabiscuit that led her to discover Louie Zamperini, whose story was all over the 1950s newspapers she was reading for Seabiscuit.

Zamperini's story is simply amazing. I was expecting a fairly normal life story before getting to the piece about flying in a bomber in WWII, but Louie's story is fascinating even from childhood. He stages a mind-boggling number of practical jokes and pranks in his youth, goes on to break a series of running records, and competes in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he meets Hitler and steals a German flag off the Reich Chancellery! All of this before we even get to the main part of the story.

A standout for me from the section about Louie's pranks and criminal activities during his youth was when Hillenbrand mentions eugenics and Louie's realisation that he was in danger of sterilization or worse:

Louie was never more than an inch from juvenile hall or jail, and as a serial troublemaker, a failing student, and a suspect Italian, he was just the sort of rogue that eugenicists wanted to cull. Suddenly understanding what he was risking, he felt deeply shaken.

I found this deeply shocking as I was completely unaware of America's extensive eugenics movement, sterilization laws, and influence on Nazi eugenics.

Another section that fascinated me was the description of WWII defences in San Francisco. Having lived in the area for a number of years it is amazing to think of mines at the entrance to the bay, a submarine net, and trenches along the coast.

In America, invasion was expected at any moment. Less than an hour after the Japanese bombed Hawaii, mines were being laid in San Francisco Bay....In coming days, trenches were dug along the California coast, and schools in Oakland were closed.

Also surprising was hearing about the significance of Nauru in WWII, known recently to all Australians as a hell-hole of an immigration detention centre. The Japanese took it in August 1942, mined the rich phosphate for munitions, and used it as a base to launch air strikes. Louie has a miraculous escape after bombing Nauru, returning to land with 594 holes in his airplane, some larger than his head.

No less astonishing is Louie's tale of survival on a life raft adrift in the Pacific. He survives simultaneous attacks from sharks and strafing from a Japanese fighter by diving under the raft and punching the sharks. No kidding. They also beat off sharks with the raft's oars and stab one in the eye with a pair of pliers.

Four more times the Japanese strafed them, sending Louie into the water to kick and punch at the sharks until the bomber had passed.

Honestly there were a number of moments in this book where I felt like it may have been exaggerated a little, the above is one of them. While I think the book was very well researched, large parts would have been based solely on Louie's descriptions and essentially impossible to verify.

But overall it is a fantastic read, and one of the most amazing stories to emerge from WWII. Louie's treatment in various POW camps is beyond horrible and yet he, somehow, remains unbroken.

Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.

4.5 stars