The Spring Book Discussion Series, “Extraordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times,” continues at Darien Library on Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. The selected titles in the series are critically-acclaimed books about those who have experienced the improbable, endured the unimaginable, and compelled us with their epic stories of cunning, tenacity, and hope. Library staff members will lead the discussions.
The third and final book of the series will be Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, the true story of a World War II U.S. Army Air Force bomber whose aircraft crashed in the South Pacific.
Synopsis: On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
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The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, 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.
In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
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“Monumental… as mesmerizing as it is gut-wrenching. Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”—People
“Ambitious and powerful… Hillenbrand is intelligent and restrained, and wise enough to let the story unfold for itself. Her research is thorough, her writing crystalline. Unbroken is gripping in an almost cinematic way.” The New York Times Book Review
“Heart-wrenching…It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand’s narrative…[her] triumph is that in telling Louie’s story (he’s now in his 90s), she tells the stories of thousands whose suffering has been mostly forgotten. She restores to our collective memory this tale of heroism, cruelty, life, death, joy, suffering, remorselessness, and redemption.’—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This discussion concludes the Library’s Spring Book Discussion Series. (The other discussion books of the series were Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.)
The Library has copies of the books available for patrons to borrow, but prior reading of the books is not necessary to attend the discussions.
The Book Discussion Series is funded solely by contributions made to the Annual Campaign, and is co-sponsored by the Darien Community Association Book Group.
Darien Library is located at 1441 Post Road, Darien, Conn 06820. For more information, call 203-655-1234 or visit darienlibrary.org.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s)
(Image attached: Cover of “Unbroken”)
