WE DIE ALONE

by David Howarth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 22, 1955

An extraordinary account of physical duress and endurance relies on the bare, bleak chronology of a period of a little more than two months- when Jan Baalsrud, a young Norwegian saboteur, survived the sinking of a fishing boat which had been machine-gunned by the Germans, landed on an island in northern Norway where the Germans were still on the alert. (The other eleven members of the expedition were to be caught- tortured and killed.) Determined to reach the Swedish border, some 80 miles away, hidden and helped by a few of the islanders, equipped with skis and food, Jan set out to climb the Lyngen Alps where he was caught by an avalanche, and snowblind and frostbitten, was rescued by Marius who took him to an isolated hut. There gangrene set in- Jan was to amputate his own toes- and Marius, now knowing that he could not reach safety on his own, hoisted him- helped by others- up 3000 feet of ice and snow, left him on a plateau until they could return later. Jan was to spend 27 days in a sleeping bag- first in a snow grave- later against a sea wall; he was given up for dead- but he did not die; and finally he was taken across the frontier- to a hospital in Sweden... An amazing story of human salvage and survival and eventually escape, there is something too of the solitude and hopelessness and pain endured in these remote northern wastelands. It has been tapped by the Book of the Month Club which will accelerate and assure an audience.

Pub Date: Nov. 22, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1955

Categories: NONFICTION