Product Description

Originally published in 1955, this must be one of the most dramatic adventures of our time. Clemens Forell, a German soldier, was sentenced to 25 years of forced labour in a Siberian lead mine after the Second World War. Rebelling against the brutality of the camp, Forell staged a daring escape, enduring an 8000-mile journey across the trackless wastes of Siberia, in some of the most treacherous and inhospitable conditions on earth. Bauer’s writing brilliantly evokes Forell’s desperation in the prison camp, and his struggle for survival and terror of recapture as he makes his way towards the Persian frontier and freedom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42383 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 572 pages

Mail on Sunday (You)
"I was so engrossed that it made me miss a flight back to the states!"

About the Author
Josef M Bauer was born in Germany in 1901. He was an extremely successful author in Germany, writing many prize-winning novels, short stories and radio plays.

Customer Reviews

Unbelievable Story ! A must to read.
You will not be able to put this book down! It is completely absorbing, at times you feel unbelievable, will make you cry and will make you smile.

The story of a man taking 3 years to escape a siberian labour camp is just incredible. Some of the people he meets along the journey gives you faith in the human race and some sadly turns you the other way. However, it is a great read and the only bit that lets it down, is that at the end you do not get to find out how he integrated back into German society (but then that's not what the story is about!). Recommended.

Gripping.
This is a truely gripping book. Describing the sheer hell that was the Gulag in Eastern Kamchatka, Forel realises that NOT to escape was a death sentence - he was being slowly poisoned by the lead mine he was working, living and sleeping in.

His story of his long trek to freedom is a gripping tale of human resolve, and is also a terrible tale of man's inhumanity to man.

Highly recommended - and very humbling to read.

Awesome
A humbling and gripping piece of writing. I think "Booker" might best set to one side his 21st century cynicism about the likely veracity of Forell's story. It was plausible enough for West German TV to have turned it into a major mini series in the 1950's (and it was re-made into a feature film recently too.) Forell himself died in the 1980's in anonymity, and if you will read his story it is not hard to see why he might have withdrawn from public life after three years of desperate survival in the wilderness. Having read inummerable tales of people in dire straights in concentration camps or on expeditions or escaping from captivity, this remains the most inspiring tale of all.