Salva Dut and Nya Nyakuach are the main characters of Linda Sue Park’s 2010 historical fiction book, A Long Walk to Water, which follows their lives during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). Salva is eleven years old and Nya is seven years old when the novel opens in 1985, and their stories are alternated throughout.
Salva and his family reside in a village in southern Sudan. Soldiers from the Northern Sudanese government attack the village one day. Salva is forced to flee into the bush after his family is split up. He travels for days without food or water until he arrives at an Ethiopian refugee camp.
Nya resides in a community close to a river. She walks for hours each day to bring her family water. Nya has to take precautions to avoid getting sick because the water is soiled and frequently contaminated.
Salva eventually travels to America and meets up with his brother there. He attends college and graduates as a physician. Nya continues to live in Ethiopia and works to develop a water well in her community.
A Long Walk to Water is a stirring tale of tenacity, hope, and survival. It serves as a reminder that there is always light, even in the darkest of times.
The true account of Salva Dut, a Lost Boy of Sudan, served as inspiration for the book. A group of Sudanese boys known as The Lost Boys were either left orphaned or cut off from their families during the Second Sudanese Civil War. In order to reach refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, they had to flee their homes and travel countless miles.
The Second Sudanese Civil War and the plight of the Lost Boys were sensitively and realistically portrayed in A Long Walk to Water, to much praise. It received the Scott O’Dell Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the John Newbery Medal.
The book has been turned into a stage play, a movie, and a graphic novel. More than 40 different languages have translations of it.
Anyone who wants to learn more about the Second Sudanese Civil War and the plight of the Lost Boys should read A Long Walk to Water. Long after you’ve finished reading it, you’ll still be thinking about this moving and inspirational tale.
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