#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‎- NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ‎- Look for special features inside‎.‎ Join the Random House Reader‎'‎s Circle for author chats and more‎.‎ In boyhood‎,‎ Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent‎.‎ As a teenager‎,‎ he channeled his defiance into running‎,‎ discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics‎.‎ But when World War II began‎,‎ the athlete became an airman‎,‎ embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943‎.‎ When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean‎,‎ against all odds‎,‎ Zamperini survived‎,‎ adrift on a foundering life raft‎.‎ Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean‎,‎ leaping sharks‎,‎ 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.‎ Appearing in paperback for‎.‎‎.‎‎.‎