Set in Sudan, A Long Walk to Water is based on the true story of Salva Dut who, in 1985 at the age of 11, was separated from his family and endured horrific trauma trying to escape war torn Sudan.  After escaping first to Ethiopia and then Kenya, Salva finally immigrated to the U.S. as one of the ‘Lost Boys’ and was adopted and raised by an American family.

As an adult, Salva returns to Sudan and is reunited with the family he thought he had lost. He begins humanitarian work with ‘Water for Sudan’, an organization that drills well in areas where people never before have had access to water without walking many hours a day to carry water back to their villages.

It is Salva’s well drilling that connects his story to that of Nya, a young girl when the reader is introduced to her in 2008. Nya struggles daily to walk many miles in the blazing sun to haul water for her family. Her daily struggle for survival intersects with Salva who, a generation earlir, also was a struggling child in the deserts of Sudan.

This true story is engaging and gripping. The ending is poignant and unexpected.