In Desert and Wilderness is a popular novel for young people by Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz. It is in fact the author's only novel written for children and young adults. It tells the story of two young friends, Stas Tarkowski and Nel Rawlinson, kidnapped by the rebels during Mahdi's rebellion in Sudan.

The children are forced to travel through the Sahara Desert to Khartoum where they are to be presented to Mahdi. The journey is difficult and exhausting especially for delicate and vulnerable Nel. Staś, who is a brave and responsible boy, protects his friend from the Muslims' cruelty, even though that means that he is beaten and punished. His plans to escape ...

The quotes from this eBook:

- "Prophet,' he said, 'Your doctrines I do not know; therefore if I accepted them, I would do it out of fear like a coward and a base man. Are you anxious that your faith be professed by cowards and base people?"

- "Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh."

Look inside

(Instructions: Click on the right edge - next page, click on the left edge  - previous page, click on the title top left  - table of contents, click on the aA top right  - change text size, click on the title of the chapter down left - slider that moves you throught the titles of the chapters, make the browser window smaller - see the full Cover.)