In
boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he
channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had
carried him to the Berlin Olympics.
But when World War II began, the athlete
became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May
afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific
Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst
and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to
the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity;
suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate,
whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
