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The Long Walk

Collected in The Bachman Books

The Long Walk

DystopianFantasy
Pages
401
Published
1979
Language
English

Synopsis

In a totalitarian near-future, 100 teenage boys are forced into the Long Walk: an endless race where anyone who slows below four miles per hour is shot on sight. Ray Garraty and ninety-nine other contestants must keep walking through a desolate landscape while their own bodies fail them — until only one can remain.

Prose complexity
4/10

Collected in

Book cover of The Bachman Books
The Bachman Books

Vibe

DarkTense
SurvivalComing of Age

Genres

Dystopian Fantasy Horror Science Fiction Suspense Thriller

About the author

S
Stephen King

Stephen King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author whose work has defined popular horror fiction for more than half a century. Born in Portland, Maine, he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned the family, and credits his mother's resilience and a voracious reading habit as the foundations of his imagination. He began selling short stories to men's magazines while working as a high school English teacher, and published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974—his wife Tabitha retrieved...

Characters

Ray GarratyProtagonist

A sixteen-year-old boy and the novel's narrator, forced into a deadly walking contest by his father's past.

McVriesSupporting

Garraty's closest companion on the Walk; sardonic and self-destructive, he repeatedly comes to Garraty's aid and forms much of the novel's emotional core.

Art BakerSupporting

A kind-hearted Walker from Louisiana who befriends Garraty and McVries during the Walk, despite a hidden past as a small-time con artist and night rider.

Peter McVriesSupporting
Arthur BakerSupporting
All characters in The Long Walk

Frequently asked questions

  • Was The Long Walk published under King's name?

    No. The Long Walk was published in 1979 as Richard Bachman, the second Bachman book. King wrote the novel as a college student in 1966-67 and it is one of his earliest complete manuscripts.

  • What are the rules of the Walk?

    One hundred boys begin walking south from the Maine-Canada border. They must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour. Each time a walker drops below that speed, he receives a warning. After three warnings, if he drops below speed again—or falls, or stops—he is shot by soldiers walking alongside the column. The last boy walking wins anything he wants.

  • What does The Long Walk represent?

    King has said the Walk is an allegory for whatever process grinds young men down—war, poverty, ambition, the structures of society that demand endless performance. The boys have all volunteered for reasons they believe are good; the novel watches those reasons erode under the reality of what they've entered. It is one of King's most sustained studies of masculinity under pressure.

  • Has The Long Walk been adapted into a film?

    Yes. After decades in development, a film adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence, with a screenplay by JT Mollner, was released on September 12, 2025. It stars Cooper Hoffman as Ray Garraty, David Jonsson as Peter McVries, and Mark Hamill as the Major.

  • Is this book part of a series?

    This is a standalone novel, though it was originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and later collected in an omnibus volume titled The Bachman Books.

  • Did the author write this book early in his career?

    This was the first novel the author ever wrote, drafted while he was a college student in the mid-sixties, years before his first published work reached the public.

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