In Desert and Wilderness (Polish: W pustyni i w puszczy) is a popular young adult novel by Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, written in 1911. It is the author's only novel written for children/teenagers. In Desert and Wilderness tells the story of two young friends, Staś Tarkowski (14 years old) and Nel Rawlison (8 years old), kidnapped by rebels during Mahdi's rebellion in Sudan. It was adapted for film twice, in 1973 and in 2001.