“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, the author of “Seabiscuit.”
An absolutely shattering read, “Unbroken” kept me up all night. It's the true story of Olympic track star Louie Zamperini, a bombardier on a B-24 in World War II. He was shot down over the Pacific, floated at sea for more than 40 days with no provisions, imprisoned for more than two years and tortured by a sadistic Japanese war criminal. It’s a breathtaking and awe-inspiring story of courage, strength, and survival.
Before I go on...
what’s your favorite book, fiction or non-fiction, since 2000?
Back to “Unbroken.” I admit my family history attunes me to the story of Lt. Louis Zamperini. My father, Lt. Stanley Levine, was the radar officer on a B-29 shot down over the Sea of Japan in 1945. The crewmen were captured and about to be beheaded, but were saved by an English-speaking Japanese military policeman who had been educated in New Hampshire before the war. I’ve written about my father’s travails in The Miami Herald in a story called
“Hiroshima, Personally.” But my father’s crew suffered virtually none of the hardships Zamperini endured. Starvation, constant beatings, forced labor, degrading torture. I really cannot remember reading anything quite like it.
So that’s me. What’s your favorite book published this century?
Paul Levine