The Long Walk

“The Long Walk” is another astonishing work by Stephen King. They say the idea for this book came to him when he was finishing school.

One hundred young people set out on the road, but only one will be able to reach the end. The lone lucky survivor will get a cash prize and—probably—applause from the audience watching the spectacle. Everyone else is doomed to die. The stop is forbidden. Moreover, you can’t slow down. No sleep. All food and water are strapped to your waist. Whatever happens around you, the main thing is not to stop and keep moving forward. And the exhausted boys march, march, march… There will be no happy ending.

The plot of the novel “The Long Walk” is compared to human life. People, too, hurry to live; they fear stopping, even though they often live without knowing why—or for some once-invented dream that, once it comes true, will certainly bring disappointment. And at the end, sooner or later, everyone is expecting death. Stephen King draws this moment without mercy and realistically, vividly embodying for us the old Latin proverb “Momento mori”—“Remember that you will die.”