Book Review: Four Miles to Freedom by Faith Johnston

I'm not much into non-fiction but Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita (Random House India) stirred my interest. When I read the reviews of Four Miles to Freedom by Faith Johnston, some people said that it's more like fiction, and honestly this fact raised my interest.

Four Miles to Freedom tells an adventurous tale of a brave escape from a POW camp in Rawalpindi. After being shot, when Flight Lieutenant Dilip Parulkar plans to escape from the camp, he is not alone. Malvinder Singh Grewal and Harish Sinhji come along.

The book is very well researched. It is based on interviews with eight Indian fighter pilots who helped prepare the escape. The writing is clean and crisp. The narration creates a real imagery and it somehow transports you that era. There are several terms, names and incidental timings that some readers may find difficult to absorb.

The book is more informative than entertaining. The book cover is apt and intriguing! The book encloses some lovely, rare Black & White pictures.

I liked the lines from a poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

Overall, the book is a journey of courage, bravery and determination. If you like reading non-fiction, you should go for it, but if you like reading fiction, especially light fiction, this book is not for you.


I have received this book from Random House India (Random Reads) for an honest review.