Author(s): Slavomir Rawicz

Biographies & Memoirs

This is the harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India. In 1941, the author and a small group of fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp. Their march out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free. With a new Afterword by the author, and the author's Foreword to the Polish edition, this new edition of "The Long Walk" is destined to outrank its classic status. "One of the epic treks of the human race. Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen... history is filled with people who have crossed immense distances and survived despite horrific odds. None of them, however, has achieved the extraordinary feat Rawicz has recorded. He and his companions crossed an entire continent - the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and then the Himalayas - with nothing but an axe, a knife, and a week's worth of food... His account is so filled with despair and suffering it is almost unreadable. But it must be read and re-read." - Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm."The classic reissue is now available in paperback with a new Afterword. "I hope The Long Walk will remain as a memorial to all those who live and die for freedom, and for all those who for many reasons could not speak for themselves."--Slavomir Rawicz In 1941, the author and six other fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp in Yakutsk--a camp where enduring hunger, cold, untended wounds, untreated illnesses, and avoiding daily executions were everyday feats. Their march--over thousands of miles by foot--out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free. While the original book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, this updated paperback version includes a new Afterword by the author, as well as the author's Foreword to the Polish book. Written in a hauntingly detailed, no holds barred way, the new edition of The Long Walk is destined to outrank its classic status and guaranteed to forever stay in the reader's mind. *** Six-time Academy Award-nominee Peter Weir ("Master and Commander, The Truman Show, " and "The Dead Poets Society") recently directed "The Way Back, " a much-anticipated film based on "The Long Walk." Starring Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, and Ed Harris, it is due for release in 2011. Review Quotes: "One of the epic treks of the human race. Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen...history is filled with people who have crossed immense distances and survived despite horrific odds. None of them, however, has achieved the extraordinary feat Rawicz has recorded. He and his companions crossed an entire continent--the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and then the Himalayas--with nothing but an ax, a knife, and a week's worth of food...His account is so filled with despair and suffering it is almost unreadable. But it must be read--and re-read."--Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm""" "The Long Walk is a book that I absolutely could not put down and one that I will never forget..."--Stephen Ambrose "A poet with steel in his soul."--"New York Times" "One of the most amazing, heroic stories of this or any other time."--"Chicago Tribune" "It is a book filled with the spirit of human dignity and the courage of men seeking freedom."--"Los Angeles Times" First published 1956