Hold Strong Audiobook By Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, Chris Crabtree cover art

Hold Strong

A Novel

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Hold Strong

By: Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, Chris Crabtree
Narrated by: Will Damron
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $30.09

Buy for $30.09

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

From Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree comes an epic and inspiring novel—based on true events—about love, heroism, and resilience during the darkest chapters of World War II.

Sam Carlson is a projectionist in small-town Minnesota, where fantasies unspool in glorious black and white—for him and for his sweetheart, college-bound math whiz Sarah Haber. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Sam is sent to the Philippines and captured as a POW. Brutalized but unbroken by the Bataan Death March and POW camps, Sam is one of eighteen hundred starved and weakened prisoners herded into the cargo hold of a barbaric hell ship called the Arisan Maru, his survival doubtful.

Determined to use her math skills on the home front, Sarah is recruited to Washington, DC, into the covert field of code breaking. When Sarah intercepts a message about a Japanese convoy, the US Navy’s mission is clear: sink the Arisan Maru and send it to the bottom of the South China Sea. Now, the lives of the two young lovers are about to inadvertently collide in one of the most shocking acts of World War II.

Anchored in an extraordinary true story and breathlessly re-created, Hold Strong is a one-of-a-kind novel that explores faith, courage, survival, and coming home against insurmountable odds.

©2025 La Mesa Fiction, LLC, Jeff A. Langholz, and Chris Adam Crabtree. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
20th Century Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Scary Tearjerking Heartfelt Imperial Japan Survival China

Critic reviews

“This book is hard to put down.”Historical Novels Review

“Though these gruesome aspects of war aren’t often easy to portray in novels and historical fiction, Hold Strong, by the trio of researchers and writers Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree, has achieved the unachievable. It does so with their cast of strong characters backed by their meticulous research.”The Epoch Times

“Something straight out of a Tom Clancy novel, with submarines and secret codes and war-altering decisions made at heavy cost. It’s thrilling stuff, made all the more so by its grounding in history.”—Rob Merrill, Associated Press

Historical Accuracy • Compelling Storytelling • Excellent Narration • Emotional Depth • Educational Content
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
I absolutely loved this novel based on true historical events. The authors really did their research.

One of Robert Dugoni's best Novels

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A story that needs to be told. An immense intense description of the POW Pacific experience and the stateside women who toiled without parades and flags to break codes and win the war. Truly breathtaking

Honor Faith and Hope

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Wow this was really a great story, one that you never heard about with WWII.

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I knew very little about the horrors of WW2 from the POW point of view in the Pacific. This story was compelling and heartbreaking.

Robert Dugoni has a gift for taking you inside the story you are reading. I love his books.

War is indeed hell

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Interesting historical read with Intriguing characters and events! Lots of suspense and chilling details. I would highly recommend!

Great Read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This historical fiction covers much of World War II history that has never been told.

It is mind bending what our soldiers went through.

From the beginning of the book with a budding romance to the end, your heart is in trenched in the story

Incredible buck

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Best boom I have listened to in years! Compelling, gripping storyline, fast paced, amazing performance.

Amazing!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Learned things I never knew about the war. Thank you for sharing where your information came from.

Rey eye opening!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I enjoy learning about history in this format. I felt some things were added just to make the book longer, but it was a great story to tell.

The human spirit is a hard thing to conquer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The introduction pulled me in easily. The story smoothly lead up to and continued from that point in the plot.

Great information for someone unfamiliar with WWII.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews