Unbroken Summary: Louis Zamperini's Story of Survival and Endurance
What Unbroken is about
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is a non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, published in 2010. It is a biography of Louis Zamperini. He was an American track star who ran at the Olympics and then served in the Second World War. After his plane crashed in the Pacific, he spent 47 days drifting on a raft. He then survived more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war in three Japanese camps.
The book follows him from a troubled boyhood in Torrance, California, to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and on into the war. The early part is about a wayward boy finding a purpose. The later part asks how much a person can endure. The subtitle names the three ideas that hold the whole thing together.
It suits readers drawn to Second World War history, true survival stories and sports biography. The story is told in close detail, down to remarks made at a train station and on a raft in open ocean.
How the story unfolds (spoilers for the early and middle sections)
Zamperini grows up in a Christian home but is a troublemaker. He steals and stashes food, liquor and cigarettes. He is also bullied for his Italian background. His father beats him as punishment, but his behaviour does not improve.
His older brother Pete changes that. Pete coaches him in running and rides a bicycle beside him on the way home from school, ringing the bell as encouragement. Louis joins his high school track team, starts winning, and becomes known as the Torrance Tornado. In 1936 he earns a place on the US Olympic team for Berlin. Before he leaves, Pete tells him that "a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory". Racing more experienced athletes in the 5,000 metres, Zamperini falls behind, then rallies to finish 8th.
He sees Berlin as a try-out for the next Games in Tokyo. The war ends his running career instead. He enlists in the United States Army Air Corps, becomes a bombardier and joins a squadron based in Hawaii. His first plane, the Super-Man, is hit over five hundred times on a bombing raid and crash lands. All but one of the crew survive. Their replacement plane, the Green Hornet, is known by the crew to be unreliable. On a search mission it crashes 850 miles south of Oahu, killing eight of the 11 men aboard.
Zamperini, Phil and Mac are left adrift. They catch an albatross, find they cannot eat it, and use it as bait for fish. They track the days carefully. During a terrible storm, Zamperini prays and promises to dedicate his life to God. On day 28 a Japanese plane strafes their rafts. Mac dies soon after. Zamperini and Phil are eventually captured by the Japanese, interrogated and sent to separate camps. At Zamperini's camp, a guard the prisoners call "The Bird" singles him out from the start.
The main characters
Louis Zamperini is the subject of the book. He goes from troubled boy to Olympic runner to bombardier to prisoner.
Pete Zamperini is his older brother and first coach. His encouragement turns Louis's life around, and his words stay with Louis in the hardest moments.
Phil is a fellow survivor of the Green Hornet crash. He falls into serious depression on the raft but survives alongside Louis.
Mac is the third survivor. He suffers mental breakdowns at sea and eats all the chocolate rations.
The Bird is a camp leader who tells the new prisoners they are enemies of Japan. The other prisoners named him for his habit of constantly watching and listening.
Tinker is a fellow prisoner Zamperini meets on the blindfolded bus journey to the camps.
The themes
Survival runs through every section. On the raft, the men invent ways to collect water and food and keep count of the days against past records for survival at sea. Zamperini talks about his mother's cooking to keep their minds steady.
War is shown through the people caught up in it. The book covers ordinary crew members, faulty aircraft their superiors insist are flight-worthy, and the cruelty of the camps.
Identity is tested again and again. Zamperini is bullied as a boy for being Italian. He builds a new self as the Torrance Tornado. In captivity, the Bird calls him out as an Olympic athlete, and the fame he earned becomes a reason to be targeted.
Redemption is named in the subtitle. The boy who stole and fought is turned around by his brother's faith in him. His promise to God during the storm at sea marks another turning point.
Why it still matters
Unbroken spent more than four years on The New York Times best seller list, including 14 weeks at number one. It is the 5th longest-running non-fiction best seller of all time. That is a remarkable run for a biography of a man who was not widely known when it came out.
Part of the appeal is the range of the story. It is a sports book, a war book and a survival account in one. Pete's line about pain and glory, first said at a train station, becomes a thread through events no one could have imagined in 1936. Readers who want to understand the Pacific war through one life will find a detailed and well-documented account here.
