The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, by Slavomir Rawicz (TPB, 1997 edition of book first published in 1956, $2)
In June of 1939 he married. In August he was part of the Polish army attacking the Germans. By November he had been arrested as a spy by the Soviets. One year later he would be sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian labor camp. He would arrive there two months later, after a long trip by train, followed by a 1000 mile march in chains through three blizzards. Eventually he and a small number of fellow prisoners escaped. They marched out of Siberia, through China, through the Gobi Desert, through Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India. And all they had with them was an ax, a knife and some food. Even after they reached safety their journey was not over. It took months for them to get back their health and be able to join the British Army.
Finally the war is over, and Rawicz wants to go home, but Stalin now controlls Poland. Soldiers returning to Poland from the west sometimes disappear along with members of their families. So now, even after all his suffering, Rawicz can not go home.
He later writes this book so that "people in the west will know about the inhumanity of Stalin's Soviets and their hirings", but also so he can set to rest his demons. How can humans go through so much and still survive? Look for this book on the new non-fiction table, avail. 9/20.
