The Long Walk

The Long Walk: A True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir Rawicz
5 out of 5*


This book was one of the most memorable books I have read in a while. The english grammar was not always correct, but english is at least his third language and it never really bothered me or took away from the story. At the beginning of the WWII Russians invaded Poland and arrested many people as spies. Rawicz was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian labor camp in northern Siberia just south of the artic circle. Soon after arriving at the camp he decided to escape. The main part of the story is of his travels south to India. This escape took 11 months and 4000 miles. I found this book to be profoundly moving to me.

The edition I read had an epilogue from the author written in 1997. I am always interested to learn more about the author of books that I read. I googled him to see if he was still alive and learned he had passed away in 2004. However, I discovered much sadder news than that: his story cannot be proven and it is actually believed that he stole the story from someone else. See this site about Rawicz himself and then this site about the real man who escaped.

Now I am befuddled because I loved this story and so greatly want to recommend it to others, but now I found that it is not HIS story. So now I have much to think about.

"If you can't stand the thought of reading something that might be dishonest, try "The Gulag Archipelago" for a more depressing, but probably more realistic view of the lives and treatment of Soviet political prisoners. Volume 3 of that series even has some good escape stories." I found these thoughts by another critic and thought maybe I would try these books.