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At the end of WWII, a German soldier is captured by the Soviets and sent to a lead mine at the easternmost point of Siberia, where he must survive under the harshest circumstances. Preferring to die free attempting to escape rather than staying for a slow death, he manages to make his way out of the labor camp. For more than 2 years, he travels the whole of Siberia in the direction of the South until he finally makes it to Iran and eventually Germany. It is a story of survival where our man should not have made it out alive, but he did. What he accomplished was, in no small part, thanks to the help of strangers he met on his way, some benevolent, others less so. However, thanks to his grit and his will, he succeeded where few did.

This is an incredible story that makes one wonder about life in general and the fact that our fate is mostly a question of luck or lack of. It also makes us realize how good of a life we have when we compare it to our hero. His story must not make us forget that out of the thousands of Germans who were taken prisoners by the Soviets, few returned home. On his way, our hero met simple people whose compassion and survival skills helped him move forward. What is especially fascinating is that those people should, by all means, have harbored a deep hatred for the German convict. After all, Germany caused more than 20,000,000 Soviet deaths during the war. And yet, they only recognized a human being yearning for freedom.
Reading the book feels like a slap in many ways as it is unfathomable to most of us today that one could survive on his own in the harsh conditions of wild Siberia. It is therefore striking to see that some groups survived and actually thrived. This book reminds us that for the majority of human history, human beings did not live in comfortable houses and did not get their food at the grocery store.
Overall, it is a short and great read to muse about life in general, but especially about the power of will and the luck we have to not live in wild Siberia. It is also a requiem to all prisoners who never made it back home and died in labor camps.