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"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.
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 the 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."
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