Description
From Laura Hillenbrand, the best-selling author of Seabiscuit, comes a long-awaited new book that tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a runner whose prodigious talent carried him to the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Zamperini was the favorite for the one-mile race and was expected to break the 4-minute record, but he failed on both counts. He began training with the hopes of winning the gold in the following Olympics but the onset of WWII ended his dream. His will to live was sorely tested when his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Together with his friend and pilot Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips, he drifted in shark-infested waters on a tiny raft for 47 days only to be rescued and then captured by the Japanese. Louis was held captive at Omoriy Naoetsu, controlled by Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a brutal, pathological and sadist leader whose main satisfaction came from slowly torturing his victims, delaying the agony of death.
