Overview

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.

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9781841197265

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Reviews

A story of human courage, endurance and terror. Washington Post One of the wildest adventure books of our time. Curt Hohof, Suddeutsche Zeitung Bauer has given us more than a prisoner-of-war story; he has left us one of the greatest adventure stories. Die Welt

Clemens Forell was called up for military service in 1938 and volunteered for a paratroop regiment. During his service he was dropped first into Rotterdam then Eben Emanel and Crete, before finally arriving on the Eastern Front where his luck deserted him. Just as his company ran out of food and ammunition, they were surrounded by Cossacks and in the ensuing fight Forell was shot through the mouth. He was captured and treated in a Russian partisan hospital, then in 1945 he was sent to Lublyanka, a remand prison in Moscow, where he was sentenced to 25 years penal labour in a Siberian lead mine. Conditions were brutal and, with the help of a dying doctor, Forell made a daring escape. But this turned out to be only the first hurdle in his battle to return home to his wife and children in Munich. He faced an 8000-mile trek from the Chuckchi Peninsula, in Eastern Siberia, to Persia, a journey that took him three years and two months. Jospeh Bauer first learnt about Forell's harrowing journey in 1954 and encouraged him to talk about his experiences in a series of interviews. These interviews went on to form the basis of Bauer's dramatic reconstruction, which brilliantly captures Forell's absolute desperation to break out of the East Cape prison camp and his ensuing flight across one of the most inhospitable terrains in the world. This is a prisoner-of-war story, an adventure story and a thriller, but it is also the story of one man's determination to be free. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit, which goes on long after all hope should have died. 50 years after its first publication this book is still a moving and powerful masterpiece. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

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.

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