Book Review - The Long Walk

I love to read! It is one of my guilty pleasures. I usually have at least 4 books stacked by my bedside, each with a book mark waiting for a few minutes (hours) of my time. You know it is a good book when you can close the cover after the last page and with a heavy sigh, wish there was more and know that you are a better person for reading it.

This book that I recommend today is called...

The Long Walk

by Slavomir Rawicz

It was recommended on a website that I sometimes frequent. I was a little worried that it might be to graphic as it talks about a few experiences this gentleman has as a prisoner during World War 2 and how he ends up in a work camp in Siberia. For those who are as squeamish as I, it was okay and didn't leave me with any lasting mental images.

The basic story line is that this Slavomir ends up at a work camp in outer Siberia. He is sentenced there for I believe 10 years. It is terribly cold and the conditions are horrific. He decides he is going to escape and gets several others to escape with him. This is his journey to freedom. This group escapes in the dead of winter so that the snow would cover their tracks. Always fearful of being captured by the Russians, they often walked at night. They marched south for about a year, crossing the Gobi desert and the Himalayan mountains and finally reaching India. What I love about this book, in world where reality TV teaches us to turn on your neighbor all in the name of survival, instead we learn what it is to be loyal and to help each other no matter what the cost to you. These men were in this trek together and helped each other along. There was very little quarreling and an imense amount of trust and friendship. I was also amazed at what they would/could do to survive.

This book has been out for a while, so I was able to check mine out from the library. So if you are in for some summer reading, give this a try. I hope you like it as much as I did.