history audiobook
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about 14 hours long at normal speed. At 1.5× that drops to about 9 hr 20 min, and at 2× to about 7 hr.
Runtimes are approximate and vary slightly by edition and retailer. Check the length shown in Audible, Libby, Spotify or Apple Books for your copy.
| Playback speed | Total time |
|---|---|
| 0.8× | 17 hr 30 min |
| 1× | 14 hr |
| 1.25× | 11 hr 12 min |
| 1.5× | 9 hr 20 min |
| 1.75× | 8 hr |
| 2× | 7 hr |
| 2.5× | 5 hr 36 min |
| 3× | 4 hr 40 min |
Plan your listen
At one hour a day and normal speed, you'll finish in about 14 days. Speed it up to 1.5× and the same hour a day finishes it in about 10 days. At 45 minutes a day and 1.5×, plan on about 13 days.
The table below shows whole days needed for every combination of speed and daily listening time.
| Speed | 15 min | 30 min | 45 min | 1 hr | 1.5 hr | 2 hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1× | 56 | 28 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 7 |
| 1.25× | 45 | 23 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| 1.5× | 38 | 19 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| 2× | 28 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
How long, really
At 14 hr, Unbroken is about the length of a drive from Chicago to Washington, D.C. and back. That's longer than about 64% of the 169 popular audiobooks we list.
Spoken at an average narration pace, Unbroken comes to roughly 130,000 words. Narrators vary, so a faster or slower reader will shift that number and the total runtime.
Want to try other speeds or your own schedule? Use the audiobook speed calculator or the listening goal calculator to find the daily minutes you need.
Track it as you listen
Booktrace is an iPhone audiobook tracker that logs your sessions, chapters, narrator and playback speed in one place, so you can see real progress through Unbroken and how many hours remain, whichever app you listen in.
Common questions
The Unbroken audiobook by Laura Hillenbrand runs about 14 hours at normal (1x) speed. Exact runtime can differ by a few minutes between editions and stores.
At 1.5x speed, Unbroken takes about 9 hours and 20 minutes. At 2x it takes about 7 hours.
At one hour a day and normal speed, Unbroken takes about 14 days. At 1.5x speed and an hour a day it takes about 10 days. At 30 minutes a day and normal speed it takes about 28 days.
Compared with the 169 popular audiobooks on this site, Unbroken is longer than about 64% of them. At 14 hr it is about the length of a drive from Chicago to Washington, D.C. and back.
