Donbas: The True Story of an Escape from the Soviet Union

by Jacques Sandulescu

The almost unbelievable, but true story of a teen-age boy's survival and triumph over hardship in a Russian slave labor camp -- ending in a breathtaking escape -- DONBAS has proven appeal for middle- and high school students and has been taught in schools. It's a book that holds kids (and adults) to the last page and gives them a new awareness and appreciation of what they've got -- and what life might one day ask of them. It's a book that puts you in its author's tattered shoes, makes you feel his cold, hunger, and pain, his homesickness and determination to live, and ask yourself: Would I survive?? “Riveting suspense . . . Once started I could not stop, once done could not forget it. Ever.” ~ The Berkshire Eagle “Simply written, direct and extraordinarily moving . . . an unassuming statement of deep affirmation.” ~ The New York Times Book Review “Excellent portrayal of a youth’s indomitable spirit and will to survive.” ~ Library Journal

Genres: Nonfiction

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Jacques Sandulescu was born in 1928, in Romania, and died in 2010, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In addition to his autobiographical books, Sandulescu wrote fiction and was a boxer, bar-owner and actor.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I knocked it out in about 5 hours of reading. I couldn't put it down. It is an autobiographical story of a young man who was forced into a Russian slave labor shortly after the end of WWII. He was 15 when he was picked up off the street on his way to school. In an odd twist of fate, his father saw him locked in his train car. Their eyes met for just a moment before the train pulled away. Although he later was able to communicate with his parents after his escape, he never saw his father again. After 2 1/2 years in a mining slave labor camp he makes a miraculous escape to freedom. It is an incredible story and would be worthwhile for teenagers to read just to come to understand the great blessings of freedom that we enjoy and that those things are worth fighting for to maintain. For more of his story, check out this article: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Journey-t...

[Lisa Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was married for a time to my aunt. That's how his book came into my home. I read it long ago but remember it being riveting, suspenseful , raw, and heartbreaking reading about the ordeal of this boy.

[Nisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful true story of grit and strength and underlying gratitude. Unsentimental and yet refreshing especially today.

[joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very bluntly written true story of a Romanian youth's escape from post WWWII soviet slave labor coal mines. It is such a wonder to read the horrible adventures people experienced in the USSR and in prison camps any where and any time. The author's accounting of his life is straight from the shoulder and he pulls no punches about the deaths and the compassionate behavior to which he was witness. It is very easy to keep reading once one has started and is not put off by such material. He does not dwell on gruesome details but does not avoid them when necessary. It has a positive resolution. I believe this was recommended to me by Head Butler, Jesse K and I'm glad I read it. I have such an easy life and so much for which to be thankful.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I've read too many escape/survival books, but I just couldn't seem to feel much sympathy for this young man. Compared to so, so many, which he admits, his time in the Donbas was pretty mild. His escape was cold, but hardly death-defying. I felt no admiration for him, until the epilogue, which he wrote years after the original publishing, when he went to Romania and back to the Donbas.

I see no point in making this required reading young people. There is so many better books, with messages of hope, faith, sacrifice, and hardship, not to mention much better written.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading. Frighteningly relevant today.

[MindOverMatter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, interesting and inspiring.
It is a pleasure to witness the resilient & healthy mindset of a survivor.

[Roland F. Bellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in high school and have read it a couple of times again since then; it's one of those books that just sticks with a person. I highly recommend it for readers of high school age and up, perhaps even for middle schoolers. It is an inspiring story of grit and determination in the face of despair. Mr. Sandulescu became an actor, even having bit part in the movie Trading Places (as the man who asks a woman about her purse).

[Bryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been interested in stories from old Russia, especially those from Russian prisons. Not sure why, but this one does not disappoint. It never drifts and it never gets bogged down. It flows through the life of a teenage boy kidnapped from Romania to work in Russian controlled coal mines in the Donbas region of modern day Ukraine and his eventual heroic escape.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband read and loved this true story as a pre-teen and I have just read it as an adult. I feel that this is a "character building" book. All spoiled teenagers should read this. Reading books like these in our formative years are why my husband and I have a strong work ethic, a sense of personal responsibility and gratitude for our American abundance. There is No preaching, no morals, just a darn fine story told about kidnap, life in a forced labor coal mining camp (Oh, the horror) and escape to freedom.
I keep wondering what happend to all those fine, helpful people this guy met on his arduous journey to freedom and what ever happened to them. Very tight, clean prose that reminds me Hemingway. No hysterical whining or philosophies. Just the facts and boy do they make you think. It's something boys would like to read, but I, as a grown woman loved it. I read it yesterday cover to cover and cried, gagged and then laughed hysterically at the end.

[Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story of a resilient optimist. Nice companion read to "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."

[Marlene Hessdorfer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing true story. One of my favourite books of the year.