Author： Daniel James BrownPublisher： Penguin Books

For readers of Unbroken， out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times -- the improbable， intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers， shipyard workers， and farmers， the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain， yet they did， going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz， a teenager without family or prospects， who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream， Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era， a celebration of a remarkable achievement， and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

在讀者們脫離了《堅不可摧》那大蕭條時期的深淵之后，迎來的是一個在絕望中對抗命運，尋找希望的故事——故事以親密的，不太真實的口吻講述了九個來自美國西部的工人階級男孩是如何在1936年柏林奧運會上向世人展示何謂真正的勇氣。人們從未期望這支由伐木工、造船工和農(nóng)民之子組成的華盛頓大學的八槳賽艇隊能打敗來自東海岸和英國的精英隊，但他們不僅做到了，還打敗了阿道夫·希特勒的德國隊伍，震撼了世界。故事的感情視角集中在沒有家人、沒有背景的青年喬·讓茨身上，他劃艇不僅是為了重拾破碎的自尊，也是為了找到真正的容身之處。布朗借鑒了男孩們自己的日志和對一生一次共同夢想追求的鮮活記憶，描寫了一個令人難忘的年代、一場杰出的運動以及一位非凡年輕人的個人追求之路。