One morning- when I had gone out to see a friend- I suddenly received the news that twenty Red soldiers had surrounded my house to arrest me and that I must escape.' (Excerpt from Chapter 1)

This is the tale of one mans extraordinary journey across a continent and through the depths of human experience. Ferdinant Ossendowski, a cultured Russian doctor and writer, found himself on the run from the Bolsheviks during the Revolution of the 1920s. Setting his sights on reaching the safety of British India, he traveled across Asia, through a nightmarish landscape of battles, bandits and disease, forced to rely on his most basic survival instincts. This account of his trials is painstakingly observant and unflinchingly honest, a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. Beasts,...

This is the tale of one mans extraordinary journey across a continent and through the depths of human experience. Ferdinant Ossendowski, a cultured Russian doctor and writer, found himself on the run from the Bolsheviks during the Revolution of the 1920s. Setting his sights on reaching the safety of British India, he traveled across Asia, through a nightmarish landscape of battles, bandits and disease, forced to rely on his most basic survival instincts. This account of his trials is painstakingly observant and unflinchingly honest, a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. Beasts,...