Kristina

An illustration out of the collection of Great Escapes put together by Reader's Digest last century, which I managed to bring with me when I emigrated.  I had grown to love this fairly thick volume with about 75 short stories and knew that no one would read it anyway if I had left it behind.  Of course, some of the stories are particular favourites, and The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz is one of them.  He was arrested by the Soviet secret police in 1939 and deported to Siberia.  Together with six other men, he managed to escape.  During their long walk from Siberia to Calcutta, part of which meant crossing Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, they came across 17-yr.-old Kristina, who was also escaping.  She reached the Gobi with them but, then, her strength gave out and she died there.  Eventually, three of the seven men died, too, so only four made it out alive.  An inspiring story of the human spirit.

A link to Slav Rawicz's biography and obituary --
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/may/05/guardianobituaries

I still read stories from this book, in between my other books.  Now, though, I can read them in the comfort of my own armchair, and there is no more need to dream of escape.  Thankful for peace and quiet.