Unsinkable, James Sullivan
Unsinkable, James Sullivan
12 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

Unsinkable
Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the USS Plunkett

Author: James Sullivan

Narrator: Jacques Roy

Unabridged: 10 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/08/2020


Synopsis

In the bestselling tradition of Indianapolis and In Harm’s Way comes a “captivating…gripping” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) 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, later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk.

“A reflection on the nature of storytelling itself” (The Wall Street Journal), 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 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 is a timeless evocation of young men stepping up to the defining experience of their lives. “If you were moved by Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, by William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land…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).

About James Sullivan

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on August 27, 2021

Recently I was reading my college alumni magazine and saw a review of UNSINKABLE: Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the USS Plunkett by a new to me author JAMES SULLIVAN. It struck a chord with me, as I am a big fan of WWII naval history and fiction. Most of what I had previously read in this gen......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on March 02, 2021

James Sullivan has produced an extensive family history document, but not really a great naval history. It's clear from the beginning that he is going to try and tell the story of an uncle who was a sailor on the USS Plunkett, but he tries to tell the story of 4 other guys as well, and the history o......more

Goodreads review by Kenny on April 13, 2021

It was very slow in it's pacing. I felt it took too much time on the men's backstory before getting into the parts of the story that were set up by the title. I think the stories were compelling, but personally it underdelivered on the big story. That being said, these men gave so much including tho......more

Goodreads review by Robert Doyle on January 02, 2021

Great Book! Upon finishing the book, I immediately felt compelled to write a review to help promote the quality of this book. The author, James Sullivan tells the story of the heroic crew of the WWII Destroyer, the USS Plunkett. Instead of taking literary license to write the story of the USS Plunket......more

Goodreads review by Norma on January 10, 2021

First let me say that I'm not a particularly big fan of military histories but I have always been interested in the sea in general, and the Navy in particular. This well-researched history - in many cases first-hand - is so deeply moving on so many levels. It would have been all too easy to get bogge......more