Tailspin, John Armbruster
Tailspin, John Armbruster
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Tailspin

Author: John Armbruster

Narrator: Brandon Pollock

Unabridged: 11 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/01/2022


Synopsis

World War II tail gunner Gene Moran fell four miles through the sky without a parachute and lived. Captured by the Germans, he survived a harrowing eighteen months as a prisoner of war, including a six-hundred-mile death march in 1945 across Central Europe.

When Gene returned home, he kept those memories locked up for nearly seventy years. His nine children knew little of their dad's war story. But when John, a young history teacher, learns of Gene's amazing fall, he's desperate to learn more. Finally, Gene agrees.

So begins a series of "Thursdays with Gene" interviews. Gene, nearing his ninetieth birthday, recounts incredible tales. But John has no idea what wounds he's reopening. Gene's nightmares and grief return. But both men persevere, bonded by their close and growing friendship.

As the interviews go on, John faces an ordeal of his own. His wife is fighting brain cancer. What will happen to his wife and his two young children? John must continue uncovering Gene's story of survival as he himself confronts the greatest trial of his life.

Tailspin is more than a war story. It's a story of two men's separate journeys confronting trauma and loss. It's a story of resilience and hope.

About John Armbruster

John Armbruster has taught American history and government at the middle and high school level for twenty-nine years. Before becoming a teacher, he wrote for public radio and newspapers after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives on a small farm outside of Viroqua, Wisconsin, in the heart of the Driftless Region.


Reviews

Goodreads review by La Crosse County Library on December 01, 2022

Tailspin will be our book club's December selection. We are always on the lookout for local authors! To find a copy of the book, please check out our catalog, Hoopla, or Libby. Happy reading! To join in the discussion: [URL not allowed] 4.5/5 stars Tailspin is one of those no......more

Goodreads review by Joe on July 29, 2022

Before starting this review, I would just like to say this: what an underrated book. It clearly has the potential to be found in more libraries, yet I only discovered this book thanks to my Grandma who actually was able to meet the man that cheated death in WWII. Gene Moran grew up in Soldiers Grove......more

Goodreads review by Jess on December 06, 2022

I met John Armbruster in 2015 at UW-Madison's Write by the Lake retreat. We were in the same nonfiction class. Flash forward to 2022, I was working as a library director and one of our volunteers asked if we could order this book called 'Tailspin.' He started telling me the story of Gene Moran, WWII......more

Goodreads review by Mark on March 20, 2022

I got to read this early and was floored by how beautiful, wise, and evocative it was. The world of Germany in the depths of WWII is brought fully to life, as is the delicate relationship between the author and Gene Moran, the subject of the book. Prepare to feel some big, big things. And the ending.......more

Goodreads review by Louise on March 05, 2022

It’s so important that such personal histories as this be recorded and this is an unusual way of presenting such an account, weaving in a secondary story at the same time. The second layer takes this book beyond a social history to be a genuinely moving account of challenge and grief and how we come......more