Your life will be richer and more inspired from reading this book. We cannot recommend it more highly. Not only will it educate you about some phenomenal events in history but it will truly make you appreciate the human spirit and just how much we can survive through.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand details an inspiring story and is hard to put down. An important book.

Loved this book by Laura Hillenbrand. I also loved Seabiscuit, which she wrote a few years prior to this.

Apparently it took her 7 years to write this, whilst she was recovering from Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Much better then the movie, which I thought was Ok.

Certainly recommend buying it.

Hillenbrand employs Louis Zamperini’s life as a device to display a timeline of history. Instead of filling the reader with undesirable statistics and simply stating the most notable times in history Hillenbrand allows the reader to learn and indulge in the history of WW2 through writing Louis’ life herself with the aid of the younger lieutenant. Through writing the book as ‘an outsider’ Hillenbrand yields the opportunity to provide more than just a first person perspective of the war, but also allows the the stories of other victims as well further historical moments to be included. We track Louis’ life from his young days as a child kleptomaniac, to his Olympic days, travelling with him in his B-24 ‘Superman’ as a Bombardier to his 47 days on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean stranded. This is only the first third of the book as well. The story is about survival, courage, history and relationships but most of all it is to educate the masses as to what has happened in history, and allow us to appreciate what we have today.

Often with biographies they are seen as very self-centred, which is understandable as it is all about one person. Unbroken is Zamperini’s life story, however you come to understand that everyone is grounded and comprised of other people. Hillenbrand delves into the lives of other prisoners (of War) just as much as Louis, in an attempt to illustrate the wide spread affect the war had on civilian and military lives. While reading I felt just as much as part of the story as Zamperini himself as I found out exactly what war was like. The book is so beautifully detailed that I never felt exhausted with history or that I didn’t understand any of the terminology. Hillenbrand has mastered the art of paying homage to someone with respect whilst maintaining her alluring language that is ubiquitous on every page.

WW2 novels are quite easy to come by, but Unbroken is one of the most riveting, honest and beautiful. It’s raw emotion is somewhat matchable to Elie Wiesel’s memoir ‘Night’ yet is grounded deep into history and I feel like I have filled in the gaps of my WW2 knowledge, rather with other war novels they tend to slip on the smaller events and the many people involved.
The book deals with Christianity numerous times, as Louis begins to find solace in the arms of God. I am always interested in hearing others perceptions of religion as it often becomes quite a passionate subject and this was no disappointment. Especially towards the end of the book Christianity becomes a saviour for Louis and it is inspiring to see that for him and others (Russell Allen Phillips) who has endured so much that happiness and contentment was reachable whether found through faith or not. Unbroken demonstrates to a high level the power of people and the extent of to what the human spirit can encounter.

There are moments of joy within the book to lighten the load, and when the war is liberated the happiness beams from the words on the page. Whilst the book deals with death and violence profusely, it is somewhat necessary as it shows us as the reader how indebted we are to the millions who have died in war. This book for me deserves 5 stars as it showed me what I didn’t know, how naive I was about WW2 became apparent when I begun the book and I recommend this book to anyone partially interested or heavily devoted to WW2 novels. It is a long book, but can be classified as picture book if that makes you feel any better.

An inspirational novel about courage, hope and strength of spirit in the most uncertain and horrific of times.

This book impressed me highly. And for someone who doesn’t read war novels, or would prefer to stay in her little bubble and ignore the evil’s of the world – it’s really saying something. It was raw, it was graphic, it was descriptive in the most shocking ways that will forever stay in my mind. But it was also uplifting, hopeful, and insightful.

Like I said before, I don’t read war novels, and so I knew the basics about World War 2. I knew that there were POW’s, I knew that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbour, the Nazi’s slaughtered thousands of Jews and in the end, those two countries were defeated with a lot of losses on both sides. What I didn’t know was HOW terrible it was for the POW’s, and that even though they were struggling through every day there was still hope, comradery, friendship. They didn’t lose all hope or suffered from nothing but despair. I mean, I’m sure I knew all this at some level because people can’t go through life without some sort of companionship, and how would each POW survive if it wasn’t for their fellow men beside them, pulling them through the hard times. But this book actually showed me what it was like for at least one of those POW’s – Louis Zamperini.

The author did a fantastic job of incorporating the facts from newspapers, interviews, radio broadcasts with Louis own story. It made it all seem more real. The photos made it even more real and I loved being able to see them, and their placement was perfection. For instance, when the POW’s saw 111 B-29’s flying right over them, a photo of one of those planes was placed in the book alongside it. You could just imagine the elation that each of those prisoners would’ve felt, the joy at knowing that they were one step closer to being found and rescued…imbuing more hope inside the men when they needed it the most. It was pure joy and I loved reading it and hope that the movie is just as graphic and sticks to the storyline from beginning to end because I am also interested in seeing it after reading it.
Louise Zamperini’s life is…in one word…inspirational.

So if you’re the type of person who doesn’t read War stories, like me, then I beg you to think again about this one. It is about way more than World War 2. It is about human nature and the will to live. It is a story that you can refer to in other times of distress, to make you think about what is important to you. It’s a one in a million kind of book that will hit every emotional mark. It really is a story you can’t pass on, especially if you really don’t know much about World War 2 from a POW’s perspective.

One of the best books of WW2, that I have ever read.

Laura Hillenbrand depicts the extraordinary life of Zamperini, with an amazing amount of detail and description.

A page turner from the very beginning..