Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II

Devil at My Heels is the autobiography of Louis Zamperini, a U.S. Olympian, World War II bombardier, and POW survivor, co-written with David Rensin. The memoir recounts Zamperini's extraordinary life: from a troublemaker youth to a world-class NCAA miler and 1936 Olympian, to a WWII bombardier. On May 27, 1943, Zamperini's B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He and two other survivors drifted on a raft for forty-seven days and two thousand miles before reaching land, only to be captured by the Japanese. He spent the next two years as a prisoner of war, enduring torture, beatings, starvation, and forced labor while the Army Air Corps declared him dead. After returning home, Zamperini struggled with war trauma that threatened his marriage until a spiritual rebirth transformed him. He subsequently dedicated his life to helping at-risk youth. Told in Zamperini's own voice, the memoir documents the brutality of war, human resilience, and the role of faith in survival and recovery.