Since it appeared in 1956, Slavomir Rawicz's The Long Walk has been celebrated as a gripping saga of the human spirit, following a group of POWs who escaped from a Siberian gulag in World War II and walked 4,000 miles to freedom in India. Most recently it inspired Peter Weir's 2010 film The Way Back, yet questions have arisen about the story: Was it really Rawicz's? Was it embellished by ghostwriter Robert Downing? And what became of the other escapees—among them an American engineer known only as Mr. Smith? Herself a wanderer of the world, Linda Willis was profoundly affected by the book, and here tells how she embarked on what would become a ten-year odyssey to uncover the true story.