Hillenbrand to Tell Hero's Tale

by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 8/16/2004

The author of the hugely successful book (and later movie) Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand, has signed again with Random House for her next book, the little-known story of an Olympic athlete turned WWII hero, Louis Zamperini.It turns out that Zamperini had been inspired by the racehorse Seabiscuit as a young runner, and after the book was published he and Hillenbrand corresponded. Hillenbrand eventually decided that his story was sufficiently remarkable to be the subject of her next book. Briefly, Zamperini, as an Army Air Force bombardier, was shot down over the Pacific in 1943, survived for 47 days in a tiny life raft, and was eventually picked up and imprisoned by the Japanese. He spent the next two years as a POW and was only released at the end of the war. Hillenbrand said the question of how a man endures such ordeals, and comes through to forgiveness, "exercised a profound pull on me." She has interviewed surviving wartime buddies, and will also have the cooperation of Zamperini himself, still active at 87 as a religious educator in California. The project was signed by Random editor-in-chief Jonathan Karp for North American rights from agent Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit.