Slavomir Rawicz was a Polish cavalry officer in World War II. He came home on leave and found himself arrested by the Russians for the crime of, well, being Polish. He was kept in prison, but refused to confess. After a few months, he was tricked into signing a confession and shipped off to Siberia for 25 years hard labor. After a horrible trek up into the northern wilderness, he finds himself in a Siberian work camp.

He decides he's not about to spend 25 years there, and makes plans to escape. He enlists six other men, a Latvian, an American, other Poles, and they sneak out in the night. Their escape plan will take them through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, up and down the Himalayas, and through India.

It's an incredible story. I couldn't put it down once I got started. Sometimes there were gaps in the story, but it was absolutely gripping. Really worth reading. ( )

I really, really wanted this to be a true story, but it is a complete fake (search on Wikipedia). I read it several times at an impressionable age. There were so many things that seemed just fantastic and yet almost possible nut turned out to actually be impossible.
If this was a true story then it would be a 4 1/2 stars. As a work of fiction I give it three stars. I suggest that anyone interested in this story read Heinrich Harrer instead. ( )

This was a suggestion by a non-fiction book club that I am a member of. The subject matter of the book was way too intense to complete during the holidays (December). I did manage to get thru the first six chapters but the story line wasn't progressing fast enough to hold my attention. If this were a book to read for say March or April, I would probably be totally engrossed. However, during December I was looking for a lighter - feel good, happier ending. So, I'm not saying don't check this book out - just be prepared for a difficult journey when you do. It is detail oriented, super serious, full of self-sacrifice and totally worthy of a Lenten read. ( )

First published in England in 1956, this book tells the story of how the author, a 25 year old Polish cavalry officer, escaped from a Soviet labor camp during WW II. With 6 companions, he trekked 4000 excruciating miles through Siberia, Mongolia, China and Tibet before reaching freedom in British India. Despite incredible hardships in the tundra, Gobi desert, and Himalayan mountains, the fugitives struggle southward month after month, surviving on solidarity, the kindness of local inhabitants, snake meat, and pure guts.

Narrative Context: High

Subject: Personal narrative, survival, epic adventure, imprisonment, escape, freedom, torture, labor camp, war, World War II, 20th century, Poland, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia, Tibet

Type: Memoir

Pacing: Fast-paced. The plot moves the story along.

Tone: Direct and understated.

Similar Titles or Authors: As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me: the Extraordinary True Story of One Man’s Escape from a Siberian Labor Camp and His Three Year Trek to Freedom by Josef Bauer; Rescued by Mao: World War II, Wake Island, and My Remarkable Escape to Freedom Across Mainland China by William L. Taylor; The Man the Nazis Couldn’t Catch by John Laffin; Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby; Escape from Archangel: an American Merchant Seaman at War by Thomas E. Simmons; The Flame Keepers: the True Story of an American Soldier’s Survival at War by Edward A. Handy; The Last Escape: the Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War In Germany, 1944-45 by John Nichol; We Die Alone by David Armine Howarth; The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III: the Full Story of How 76 Allied Officers Carried Out World War II’s Most Remarkable Mass Escape by Tim Carroll; We Refused to Die: My Time as a Prisoner of War in Bataan and Japan, 1942-1945 by Gene Samuel Jacobsen

Whole Collection Context: Empire of the Sun by J. G.

Special Features: Map of journeys to and away from gulag.

Learning/Experiencing: Exciting and unbelievable survival experience; learning about Russian labor camps during WW II.

Characterizations: Story told from narrators point of view, but there are a small number of sympathetic secondary characters.

Story Line: Escape from enemies to freedom, but also survival in extremes of weather and hunger/thirst and psychological endurance. Pretty incredible.

Language: Clear, straightforward, unembellished.

Setting: Setting is extremely important to the story. The escapees crossed 4000 miles of Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, and Tibet in extremes of cold and snow, heat, hunger and thirst, and difficult terrain.

Fascinating, well-written, matter-of-fact style that rings true. Can't help but doubt its authenticity, though. Yetis? Was he hallucinating, or did he make this up? Come to find out there is no little controversy - a BBC article details some of the research done to check veracity. Dubious, as I suspected. ( )