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Don't Give Up, Don't Give In

Lessons from an Extraordinary Life

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

New York Times Bestseller: This memoir by the Unbroken hero “brims with sage wisdom . . . and fond observations from his adventurous ninety-seven years” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
Completed just two days before Louis Zamperini’s death at age ninety-seven, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In shares a lifetime of wisdom, insight, and humor from “one of the most incredible American lives of the past century” (People). Zamperini’s story has touched millions through Laura Hillenbrand’s biography Unbroken and its blockbuster movie adaptation. Here, in his own words, Zamperini reveals with warmth and great charm the essential values and lessons that sustained him throughout his remarkable journey.
 
He was a youthful troublemaker from California who turned his life around to become a 1936 Olympian. Putting aside his track career, he volunteered for the army before Pearl Harbor and was thrust into World War II as a B-24 bombardier. While on a rescue mission, his plane went down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where he survived against all odds, drifting two thousand miles on a small raft for forty-seven days. His struggle was only beginning: Zamperini was captured by the Japanese, and for more than two years he courageously endured torture and psychological abuse in a series of POW camps. He returned home to face more dark hours—but in 1949 Zamperini’s life was transformed by a spiritual rebirth that would guide him through the next sixty-five years of his long and happy life. Louis Zamperini’s Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In is an extraordinary last testament that captures the wisdom of a life lived to the fullest.
 
“A fitting capstone to the Zamperini legend.” —USA Today

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 29, 2014
      Though the life of 1936 Olympic athlete and WWII POW Zamperini was
      indeed extraordinary, the “life lessons” collected in this posthumously published work (Zamperini died in 2014) prove disappointingly commonplace. The insights he shared with coauthor Rensin tend toward the broadly general, such as, at the start of a chapter on survival, “Life on earth is dangerous: you should be prepared for anything.” A section entitled “Anyone Can Turn Their Life Around,” meanwhile, strikes a surprisingly Pollyannaish note. Zamperini, with his extensive experience of peril, shares his counsel for dealing with dangerous situations, such as the eccentric earthquake-readiness tip to always keep a hard hat and pair of heavy shoes by one’s bedside. He seems less charming than reckless when he cheerfully describes playing “pranks,” including one that could have led to a
      fatal air accident. Zamperini’s willingness to forgive the sadistic Japanese officer who tormented him in captivity is moving, but his statement that “true forgiveness goes hand in hand with no longer condemning” may strike readers as an overly lenient attitude toward evil. Admirers of this extraordinary hero may prefer to stick with Laura Hillenbrand’s biography, Unbroken, and Zamperini’s own autobiography, Devil at My Heels.

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  • English

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