Линда Сью Парк (Linda Sue Park)A Long Walk to Water
BASED
ON A
TRUE STORY
Linda Sue Park
CLARION BOOKS
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston | New York | 2010
CLARION BOOKS
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003 Copyright © 2010 by Linda Sue Park
The text was set in 11.5/19 Celestia Antiqua and 12/19 Le Havre Rounded Light.
All rights reserved.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
Clarion Books is an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
www.hmhbooks.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Park, Linda Sue.
A long walk to water : based on a true story / by Linda Sue Park. p. cm.
Summary: When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven- year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other
Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to
America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. ISBN 978-0-547-25127-1
1. Dut, Salva, 1974?—Juvenile fiction. [1. Dut, Salva, 1974?—Fiction.
2. Refugees—Fiction. 3. Survival—Fiction. 4. Water—Fiction. 5. Blacks—Sudan—Fiction.
6. Sudan—History—Civil War, 1983–2005—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P22115Lo 2009
[Fic]—dc22
2009048857
Manufactured in the United States of America
QFF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4500253890
To Ben, again
CHAPTER ONE
Southern Sudan, 2008
Going was easy.
Going, the big plastic container held only air. Tall f or her eleven years, Nya could switch the handle from one hand to the other, swing the container by her side, or cradle it in both arms. She could even drag it behind her, bumping it against the ground and raising a tiny cloud of dust with each step.
There was little weight, going. There was only heat, the sun already baking the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn't stop on the way.
Heat. Time. And thorns.
Southern Sudan, 1985
Salva sat cross-legged on the bench. He kept his head turned toward the front, hands folded, back perfectly straight. Everything about him was paying attention to the teacher—everything except his eyes and his mind.