'In Desert and Wilderness' is a popular young adult novel by Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz. It tells the story of two young friends, Staś Tarkowski (14 years old) and Nel Rawlison (8 years old), kidnapped by rebels during the Mahdist War in Sudan. The language and themes used may be dated for modern readers, but it shows the current prevailing sentiment at the time.