"Unbroken"--Laura Hillenbrand's Extraordinary Book

Luara Hillenbrand, the author of "Seabiscuit," has written an extraordinary new book called "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption." The true story follows the life of Louis Zamperini and his unbelievable journey from rowdy kid in Torrance, California, to one of the world's great track athletes, to bombardier in the Army Air Force in World War II. Zamperini's B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Palmyra Atoll in May of 1943, and he and the two other survivors of the crash ended up in a rubber and canvas raft. One comrade (Mac) survived about a month in the raft before succumbing, and the other (Phil) survived some 47 days in the raft, when the two were captured by the Japanese just off the Marshall Islands (some 2000 miles from Palmyra Atoll!). If this world-record survival on a life raft were the whole story, it would be one of the most remarkable stories in history. But that was just the prelude to Louie's trials, involving two years of imprisonment, slavery, and unspeakable torture in Japanese prison camps. [more coming]