As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me

Determined not to die in a Siberian gulag, German prisoner of war Josef Bauer stages a daring escape. He will spend the next two years of his life wandering across frozen wastelands, dependent on local villagers for hospitality and at risk from both Soviet patrols and fellow fugitives from the law. This is a fabulous adventure story and I particularly enjoyed the passages describing local tribal culture, but something is missing. Bauer's macho stiff-upper-lip writing style leaves the story lacking the emotional resonance it needs to capture the reader.

Josef Martin Bauer's "As far as my feet will carry me" is the extraordinary true story of a German prisoner of war who is sentenced to work in a lead mine in Siberia. The prisoner, dubbed "Clemens Forell" manages to escape and embarks on a three-year trek across the Russian landscape while attempting to reach his home.

The story is pretty amazing. I had a difficult time with the writing, which is best described as stilted. Despite being a short book, it took me ages to read it... the author is so detached from the story that it makes the book difficult to read. I perhaps would have liked it better if it were written in the first person.

This book is very similar to Slavomir Rawicz's "The Long Walk" which I've read many times. While show more veracity of Rawicz's book has long been questioned (and with good reason, I think,) Bauer's book comes with a greater ring of truth to it. show less

A really good survival book. A German prisoner is brought to the very east of Siberia together with many other prisoners of war to be a slave. He gets help from a doctor to escape and then the story gets really interesting. All the struggles he had to endure, it is hard to comprehend even after reading this book.
I really enjoyed reading it. Loved his dog. Wished that the end had been a bit more prolonged though.

This well-written story tells of one German soldier’s escape from a Siberian labor camp and his cross county trek to return home. It has excellent detail, pacing, and descriptions of the landscape and people encountered.

True story of German prisoner of war sent to lead mine in far east Siberia in 1945? He escaped in 1949 and spent 3 years traveling across Asia usually on foot before arriving in Iran. One thing that struck me was the hospitality of the native peoples he encountered who welcomed him into their huts and shared resources with him despite not speaking the same language and realizing that he was an escaped prisoner and putting everyone in danger. In a way it was allegorical including is travels with a trio of non-political escaped prisoners.

If you like to feel the book as you read; if you like an impossible adventure; if you like to see total despair and heartbreak turn into triumph and celebration then this is definitly the book for you

A brilliant true story escape that follows in the footsteps of books such as The long walk and Papillon.