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GREAT ESCAPES by David Long

GREAT ESCAPES

by David Long ; illustrated by Jamie Coe

Pub Date: Nov. 4th, 2025
ISBN: 9780571382941
Publisher: Faber & Faber

A brisk, globe-trotting collection recounting over 150 years of daring real-life escapes.

British historian Long delivers high-stakes adventure steeped in historical insight. From downed pilots to enslaved people in 19th-century America and humanitarian workers fleeing conflict zones—as well as some whose “lives were hardly heroic” yet showed “extraordinary cunning and imagination”—the subjects make their bids for freedom. Some stories, like that of Indian aviators lost in Pakistan following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 or a Japanese man who repeatedly escaped after being imprisoned for robbery and murder in the 1930s, read like fast-paced thrillers. Others highlight inventive wartime tools—maps hidden in playing cards, compasses concealed in false teeth—designed to help prisoners of war escape. Of the 32 chapters, about a third center on women and/or people of color. Many of the subjects—Harriet Tubman and Winston Churchill excepted—may be new to readers. Long’s prose is lively, and the swift pacing within each five-to-six-page vignette offers accessible entry into history. Some of his subjects endured horrific treatment, such as Yazidi human trafficking survivor, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad, although Long’s middle grade–friendly language hints at atrocities without being excessively graphic. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t contain sources. Coe’s stylized, full-page color portraits open each chapter, breaking up the text and visually enhancing the book’s momentum.

An energetic read, rich in details and suited for readers drawn to unusual tales of resilience and ingenuity.

(Nonfiction. 9-12)