Rating: 
Summary: A great examination of the surviving spirit
Review: There have have been questions about the truth od this book. What rings true is the deep emotional turmoil of the author as he hangs on to his hatred for his tormentors, and there's no doubt thess dark passions helped spur him on during his long and often seeminly endless trek. It's a sad book. An amazing journey of the mind and the soul can be found in IN THE GHOST COUNTRY by Peter Hillary, a mind-bending account of his haunted journey to the South Pole. Deep stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: a journey that never happened
Review: There is nothing true about the story told in the book.
It belongs in the same scrap-heap as tales of UFO abductions.The book was produced originally by a british reporter
hungry for Yeti-stories and a polish refugee who called
himself Slavimor Rawicz. The credible parts of it contain
bits and pieces of the experiences of REAL polish refugees
who suffered in the soviet union at the time, but the bulk
of the story is made up. It may even be the case that he
actually might have been in the USSR and did escape, as others
did through Afghanistan or Persia. Though among those who
did escape for real, no one remembered him or knew him in
the 1950s. It is strongly suspected that the british "translator" (or
in reality co-author) created the path of his journey out
through Tibet and India so he could insert the material about
the snowman sighting for his own purposes. In the 1950s when the story was fresh, British Officials in
India were found and asked about it. The polish exile records
were searched. Nothing was found. Again, when the soviet
and polish records opened up, nothing was there. The journey
itself as described makes no sense and doesn't line up with
the real geography. Slavimor Rawicz may have actually
had a real story to tell, but since publication of this book
whatever that real story was has been lost behind a whole
tapestry of lies that is "the long walk". Even more tragic is the bodyguard of liars and fanatics who
have promoted these made-up stories. The stories of real poles
who suffered during the same period are ignored in favor of
pulp trash like this.
Rating:
Summary: nobody should believe this book
Review: This book is a fake. Its been known to be a fake for decades
but for unknown reasons many people would rather read a fake
book about the USSR than read real accounts of people who
suffered horribly under stalinism and communism.
Why is it a fake? There is nothing in it (including the
identity of the author) that can be proved out.
No such person as "Slavomir Rawicz" was an officer in the
polish army or the polish army in exile. No such person
appears in the soviet records and neither does the camp
he claims he was at. There is no evidence of his ever having
been in India. It would be different if some parts of his
story at least could be confirmed by others, but not one
single part of it can be proved by anything but his word to
have happened.
Those who promote this FRAUD are doing a terrible injustice
to the real victims of the soviet system. Why anyone would
choose to ignore true stories of poles and others supported
by facts in favor of a ghost written book full of nonsense up
to and including an encounter with a snowman is beyond reason.
If you want to learn about polish officers in the USSR, a
fact to start with is that tens of thousands of them were
executed and thrown into mass graves. Others were put into
real camps in the gulag and then found there way out either
by escape or through the releases that were arranged by
strong men who did not forget them and forced the soviet union
to release many of the remaining survivors.
Those stories are real and the brave actions of those involved
is real. Those who promote this work of fiction and fraud
are doing a disgrace to the memory of a great many victims
of stalinism.
Rating: 
Summary: not believable
Review: This book purports to describe the travels of a polish
officer in 1942 escaping from Siberia across China and
into freedom in India. As a travel book, it doesn't
hold up. As anyone who has travelled to these areas can
tell you, no small unsupported group of people is going
to just walk across those deserts without water or cross through
Tibet north to south during the coldest months of the year.
There are no landmarks to speak of presented in the book that
in any way line up to the geography of where he claims to have
gone. Beyond that, his story of escape from the russian camp is pure unbelievable melodrama. And for good measure, it contains
a bigfoot (or snowman) sighting near the end. I suppose a few people will believe that some of the worst
deserts in the world are just there to walk across or that
you can just kind of find your way over the Himalayas during
the coldest part of the year to India. I also couldn't help but wonder where his companions ended up
after. Did they all just fall off the face of the earth
after arriving in India? And on a journey like this, why would
you only know one of your companions as "Mr. Smith". Most people
would learn the entire life stories of the others on a trip like
this supposedly was. Or at the very least learn the names of
those your moving with. If you want to read real survival stories, try something
about Shakelton or the book Great Heart.
Rating:
Summary: not believable
Review: This book purports to describe the travels of a polish
officer in 1942 escaping from Siberia across China and
into freedom in India. As a travel book, it doesn't
hold up. As anyone who has travelled to these areas can
tell you, no small unsupported group of people is going
to just walk across those deserts without water or cross through
Tibet north to south during the coldest months of the year.
There are no landmarks to speak of presented in the book that
in any way line up to the geography of where he claims to have
gone. Beyond that, his story of escape from the russian camp is pure unbelievable melodrama. And for good measure, it contains
a bigfoot (or snowman) sighting near the end. I suppose a few people will believe that some of the worst
deserts in the world are just there to walk across or that
you can just kind of find your way over the Himalayas during
the coldest part of the year to India. I also couldn't help but wonder where his companions ended up
after. Did they all just fall off the face of the earth
after arriving in India? And on a journey like this, why would
you only know one of your companions as "Mr. Smith". Most people
would learn the entire life stories of the others on a trip like
this supposedly was. Or at the very least learn the names of
those your moving with. If you want to read real survival stories, try something
about Shakelton or the book Great Heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Amazing!
Review: This is the most amazing story I've ever read. It's an incredible journey that displays the furthest boundaries of the human spirit to achieve freedom. It makes the "Great Escape" look like a walk in the park.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: This is the second book im reading about the WWII period (although this book doesnt take place specifically during WWII) and its truly amazing what people can do. Sure, people think that he might be making things up because a. how does he remember all these things specifically? and b. how can a person really go that long without water? Well, answering question a, if you go through something so life changing, its not going to just escape your memory. Yeah, I agree that maybe he might be exaggerating the number of days he went without water in the Gobi, but a majority of this story really does have to be true. As for the spotting of the Yeti, we just might never know....
Rating:
Summary: i assume this is a true story, but don't care if it's not
Review: you should read this in the same timeframe that you read "a day in the life of ivan denisovich". it's a remarkable story of personal suffering in the name of freedom - or at least getting by.
if the idea of what it would be like to suffer in a prison camp appeals to you, read this.
| 
