• Business
  • Life
  • Celebrity
  • Sport
  • Blog
  • Auto
  • Tech
Stories from SWNS
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Karim Tahseen Khayat: Seeds Training Services and Digital Services

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Life
    • Celebrity
  • Tech
    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    Improve Your Financial Prospects With a Forex Trading Course

    Improve Your Financial Prospects With a Forex Trading Course

    Adsterra Malware Protection: How Does Adware Work?

    Adsterra Malware Protection: How Does Adware Work?

    How to Sell Your Online Store for Maximum Profit

    How to Sell Your Online Store for Maximum Profit

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Review

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay on the Nintendo Switch

    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Review

    macOS Sierra review: Mac users get a modest update this year

    Hands on: Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 review

    The Last Guardian Playstation 4 Game review

    Intel Core i7-7700K ‘Kaby Lake’ review

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Karim Tahseen Khayat: Seeds Training Services and Digital Services

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Life
    • Celebrity
  • Tech
    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    Improve Your Financial Prospects With a Forex Trading Course

    Improve Your Financial Prospects With a Forex Trading Course

    Adsterra Malware Protection: How Does Adware Work?

    Adsterra Malware Protection: How Does Adware Work?

    How to Sell Your Online Store for Maximum Profit

    How to Sell Your Online Store for Maximum Profit

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Review

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay on the Nintendo Switch

    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Review

    macOS Sierra review: Mac users get a modest update this year

    Hands on: Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 review

    The Last Guardian Playstation 4 Game review

    Intel Core i7-7700K ‘Kaby Lake’ review

No Result
View All Result
Stories from SWNS
No Result
View All Result
Home Blog

Book Review: The Strength of Wills by Allen Walker

Guest by Guest
October 17, 2018
in Blog
0
Book Review: The Strength of Wills by Allen Walker
0
SHARES
19
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By Lucy Bryson

The true story behind the true story of The Strength of Wills, Allen Walker’s stunning new novel, is worth telling. In the early 1980s Walker, a motor mechanic in his youth, met a shy Polish immigrant whose car needed fixing. Over the course of several meetings, Walker gained the man’s trust and friendship – and his poignant life story.

Bringing that story to life, through the medium of historical fiction, took Walker longer than most – over 30 years to be exact. But his meticulously-researched book reflects the blood, sweat and tears of his friend who, we learn, is forced to make an extraordinary 2,500-mile journey across war-torn Europe to escape the invading German army. The Strength of Wills recounts that three-year journey in all its unflinching, desperate, bloody glory.

Allen Walker

The book follows Jedrek, a lively teenager, and Viktor, a cantankerous older man some 50 years his senior, who meet in unimaginably horrible circumstances: both are fleeing from advancing Nazi soldiers in fear for their lives. Jedrek is covered in human filth, having escaped brutal army officers by crawling through raw sewage.

The pair are polar opposites: Jedrek is sociable and street savvy but struggles with the “big words” used by Viktor – a “striking and distinguished man in the autumn of his life” – who shuns company and has a particular dislike for young people. Despite their differences, the pair form a bond of necessity and rely on each other to escape Hitler’s invading troops.

The book’s engrossing, fast-paced narrative is cleverly split between the perspectives of Jedrek and Viktor as they flee first into Germany and then into France. They face violence, danger and the threat of death – or worse – at every turn. Maps of their route, in addition to detailed footnotes to explain historical events, bring their terrible ordeal to life.

Walker writes with warmth and with candour. In places, he’s even funny and playful: Jedrek reluctantly agreeing to pass himself off as Viktor’s niece in a bid to enter Germany. A final, touching twist brings a welcome, uplifting end to this deeply moving story.

But while his account may be fictionalised, it doesn’t shy away from the graphic horrors of war (or, indeed, from the physical and sexual abuses suffered by innocent people at the hands of Nazi soldiers). It begins, in fact, with Hitler’s 1939 address, as Chancellor of the Reich, in which he describes the Polish situation ‘intolerable’ and declared: “Danzig was and is a German city. The Corridor was and is German.” His words pre-empted the brutal invasion of Poland that saw six million people tortured, killed and enslaved.

In The Strength of Wills, Allen Walker has done his friend’s story justice – and done him proud.

The Strength of Wills, an historical novel based on a true story, is available now on Amazon priced £12.90 in paperback and £4.99 as an eBook. For further information visit allenwalker.me.

 

Previous Post

Brothers make history at grueling Ironman triathlon in Hawaii

Next Post

Police given snooty note for parking in parent bay while hunting for vulnerable child

Guest

Guest

Next Post
Police given snooty note for parking in parent bay while hunting for vulnerable child

Police given snooty note for parking in parent bay while hunting for vulnerable child

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected test

  • 110 Followers
  • 60k Followers
  • 168k Subscribers
  • 23.5k Followers
  • 99 Subscribers
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Women love cheesy chat up lines, a study has revealed

Top 20 cheesy chat-up lines ladies really love

March 5, 2014
The top ten most well-known bingo phrases

The top ten most well-known bingo phrases

January 21, 2014
The horses thunder towards a jump at the Grand National

Amazing racehorse names which never made it

April 23, 2014
HGH Injections Brands: Which Ones Are Best?

HGH Injections Brands: Which Ones Are Best?

January 14, 2019
Chris Fear, 33, outside the Coral betting shop which is refusing to pay out on his 485/1 winning bet

Boycott Coral! Bookmaker faces protest after refusing to pay out on a football fan’s 485/1 bet

184
Women love cheesy chat up lines, a study has revealed

Top 20 cheesy chat-up lines ladies really love

147
Women feel invisible to the opposite sex at the age of 51, researchers found

Women begin feeling invisible to men ‘when they turn 51’

138
UKIP candidate claims Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust in masterplan to create State of Israel

UKIP candidate claims Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust in masterplan to create State of Israel

105
Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

May 13, 2022
Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

May 6, 2022
The top 5 UK shopping centres with the highest footfall (and how this can help your business)

The top 5 UK shopping centres with the highest footfall (and how this can help your business)

May 4, 2022
How to build customer relationships and increase loyalty

How to build customer relationships and increase loyalty

May 4, 2022

Recent News

Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

May 13, 2022
Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

May 6, 2022
The top 5 UK shopping centres with the highest footfall (and how this can help your business)

The top 5 UK shopping centres with the highest footfall (and how this can help your business)

May 4, 2022
How to build customer relationships and increase loyalty

How to build customer relationships and increase loyalty

May 4, 2022
SWNS

SWNS all rights reserved. Copyright 2020

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Auto
  • Blog
  • Business
  • Celebrity
  • Gaming
  • Life
  • Lifestyle
  • News
  • Pictures
  • Property
  • Review
  • Sport
  • SWNS
  • Tech
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Recent News

Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

Living and Working in a Small Canadian Town Like Banff

May 13, 2022
Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

Top 5 risks of addressable media advertising

May 6, 2022
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2020 South West News Service Limited.

No Result
View All Result
  • Business
  • Life
  • Celebrity
  • Sport
  • Blog
  • Auto
  • Tech

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2020 South West News Service Limited.