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  • A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park book cover
  • A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park book cover
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A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

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Two lives shaped by the search for water and safety

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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    #1 New York Times bestseller

  • Author recognition

    Author Linda Sue Park is a Newbery Medalist

    The description identifies Linda Sue Park as a Newbery Medalist; this is an author accolade, not an award claim ...

AlbakiReads Editorial

Two lives shaped by the search for water and safety

Set in Sudan, the novel alternates between Nya in 2008 and Salva in 1985. Nya’s daily routine involves a long walk to collect water, while Salva’s experience connects the story to the displacement of Sudanese refugees known as the “lost boys.” Their separate narratives eventually intersect. The book also includes an afterword by Linda Sue Park and the real-life Salva Dut, whose experiences inform the novel and who later founded Water for South Sudan. Its structure brings together questions of access to water, forced migration, family, and survival across two periods in Sudan’s recent history.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Children ages 9–12 interested in historical fiction set in Africa.
  • Readers who want a story centered on two young people’s experiences of displacement and daily water collection.
  • Readers interested in how a novel connects to a real person’s life and humanitarian work.

Themes

Access to waterForced migration and refugeFamily and safetySurvival

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Cherished by millions of readers, this #1 New York Times bestselling novel is a powerful tale of perseverance and hope. Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park interweaves the stories of two Sudanese children who overcome mortal dangers to improve their lives and the lives of others.

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.

Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way. Includes an afterword by author Linda Sue Park and the real-life Salva Dut, on whom the novel is based, and who went on to found Water for South Sudan.

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