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Published Dec 2020
416 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
In the bestselling tradition of Indianapolis and In Harm's Way comes a thrilling and vividly told account of the USS Plunkett - a US Navy destroyer that sustained the most harrowing attack on any Navy ship by the Germans during World War II, that gave as good as it got, and that was later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk.
More than the story of a single, savage engagement, Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca in North Africa, to Sicily and Salerno in Italy and then on to Plunkett's defining moment at Anzio, where a dozen-odd German bombers bore down on the ship in an assault so savage, so prolonged, and so deadly that one Navy commander was hard-pressed to think of another destroyer that had endured what Plunkett had. After a three-month overhaul and with a reputation rising as the "fightin'est ship" in the Navy, Plunkett (DD-431) plunged back into the war at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and once again into battle during the invasion of Southern France—perhaps the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre.
Featuring five incredibly brave men—the indomitable skipper, who will receive the Navy Cross; the gunnery officer, who bucks the captain every step of the way to Anzio; a first lieutenant, who's desperate to get off the ship and into the Pacific; a seventeen-year-old water tender, who's trying to hold onto his hometown girl against all odds, and another water tender, who mans a 20mm gun when under aerial assault—the dramatic story of each plays out on the decks of the Plunkett as the ship's story escalates on the stage of the Mediterranean. Based on Navy logs, war diaries, action reports, letters, journals, memoirs, and dozens of interviews with the men who were on the ship and their families, Unsinkable transcends historical appreciation of a single military ship to become a timeless evocation of young men stepping up to the defining experience of their lives.
"Captivating...Sullivan delivers a gripping account...An outstanding addition to the still-active genre of WWII histories focusing on a single unit, ship, or bomber." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Suffused with evocative language and intimate portraits of life in the U.S. Navy, this is a WWII history to savor." - Publishers Weekly
"Readers, especially those with command of naval terminology, can virtually become part of the crew's frenzied reeling as they aided their injured, dying, and dead comrades and kept the Plunkett seaworthy." - Booklist
"I wept at the end of this book, and I suspect you will, too. If you were moved by Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, by William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land, by Ernie Pyle's writing of Americans at their best and worst—by the values we hold dear, decency, sacrifice, steadfastness, then Unsinkable will take you to a place long dead in your soul, and flood it with light." - Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers
"James Sullivan's Unsinkable is a wonderful achievement. Intimate, harrowing, thrilling, this epic of an incredible ship and five amazing men is unmissable. The finest seafaring tale from WW2 in a long while." - Alex Kershaw, author of The Bedford Boys, The Longest Winter, and The First Wave
"At a time when stories of individual heroism are especially needed, James Sullivan brings us the riveting Unsinkable. Although the action unfolds aboard a destroyer, the focus is not on a ship, but on five uplifting individuals. Their courage in facing the enemy in Europe, culminating in the defense of their ship, the USS Plunkett (DD-431), from an attack by a dozen German bombers off Anzio, is matched by the personal issues they juggle while serving in a war zone. Sullivan 'humanizes' the war in this captivating piece of storytelling." - John F. Wukovits, author of Hell from the Heavens
This information about Unsinkable was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James Sullivan was born and raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has written for the New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, the magazine. He lives with his family outside Portland, Maine, 3.4 miles from the birthplace of film director John Ford, who steamed into Omaha Beach on Plunkett.
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