Nigel Jones
To Hell and Back
Unbroken: An Extraordinary True Story of Courage and Survival
By Laura Hillenbrand
Fourth Estate 473pp £20 order from our bookshop
Laura Hillenbrand’s first book, Seabiscuit, was about the eponymous racehorse whose triumphs lightened the dark days of the Great Depression. Based on meticulous research, the book broadened out into a harrowing – yet heartening – social history of America in the 1930s.
It has taken some time for Hillenbrand to produce her follow-up. This is partly at least because she suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which makes simply getting out of bed, let alone the mammoth task of researching and writing a book, an enormous effort. All the more praise
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