AND EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORY OF COURAGE AND SURVIVAL

473pp incl index, maps,some b&w photos in text. This book is very common having deservedly sold millions of copies in USA. For some reason not known in RSA.

On a May Afternoon in 1943, a US bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean. After an agonising delay, a young lieutenant finally bobbed to the surface and struggled aboard a life raft. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. As a boy he turned to petty crime until he discovered a remarkable talent for running, which took him to the Berlin Olympics. But as war loomed, he joined up and was soon embroiled in the ferocious battle for the Pacific.

Now Zamperini faced a journey of thousands of miles of open ocean on a failing raft, dogged by sharks, starvation and the enemy. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini’s fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would depend on the strength of his will …