''Walk the Wild Road'', earlier titled ''The Road from Home'', is a novel by

Nigel Hinton Nigel Hinton (born 1941 in London) is an English novelist, primarily of fiction for teenagers. Career Hinton worked in advertising for two years, then taught English for nine years at the Hugh Christie School in Tonbridge, Kent. He then wor ...

. It is set in 1870 and tells the story of a boy forced to leave his home in

Prussian Poland The Province of Posen (; ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Poznań Uprising of 1848 as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen ...

for a new life in

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It was first published in October 2009 as ''the Road from Home''. The current title was used from February 2011 to avoid confusion with a similarly titled novel.

Concept

The novel is based on a legend in the author's family that in 1870 his grandfather left his home in Poland at the age of eleven. Hinton visited Poland in 2005 shortly after the death of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

in which he found his ancestral home in Polichno then followed the river

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

to the sea from

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

and

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

collecting inspirations along the way.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' wrote, "The two main characters are reasonably well-developed, and the obstacles they face are never minimized in this coming-of-age tale. But sentence structure rarely varies, colorful imagery ..is lacking, and the plot-driven narrative moves forward at a measured, too-predictable pace. These factors all conspire to keep this from rising above a crowded field." ''Historical Novel Society'' called the novel "a classic hero’s tale—a linear, solid, and yet compelling story told completely from he main protagonist's Leo's, point of view."

References

{{Nigel Hinton 2009 British novels Fiction set in 1870 Novels by Nigel Hinton Sourcebooks books