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I cannot possible do justice to this amazing history of one man's journey through the hell of Japanese POW camps in WWII and the aftermath of those horrors. The author pulls no punches regarding the man's experiences which makes the book sometimes difficult to read.

Louis Zamperini was a US Olympic runner who joined the Air Corps when WWII broke out and was a bombardier when shot down in the middle of the Pacific. He and a few others were lucky enough to inflate a raft and began floating in unknown waters, surrounded by sharks. They drifted for 47 days and the men began dying, leaving only Louis and one other flyer still alive. They finally ended up on an island held by the Japanese and the ordeal began.

Louis was moved to three different POW camps and how he lived through some of the punishments were unbelievable. In particular, one guard, known as The Bird who was a raving psychopath, picked out Louis for "special" treatment which I will not repeat here.(It should be noted that of the 34,648 American prisoners of the Japanese, more than 37% died).

The dropping of the atomic bomb ended the war, the guards fled the camps, and Louis survived. He returned to the US a broken man with what now is called PTSD. He became a violent alcoholic, haunted by the thoughts and hallucinations of The Bird and it appeared that his life was over. Then something happened that changed all that. The ending of the book is uplifting and Louis lived on to carry the torch in the 1984 Olympics.

I highly recommend this book but the reader should be aware that it is very graphic and emotional.