"The spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity in Somalia--a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace. At the age of eighteen, Amanda Lindhout moved from her hardscrabble Alberta hometown to the big city--Calgary--and worked as a cocktail waitress, saving her tips so she could travel the globe. As a child, she escaped a violent household by paging through National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. Now she would see those places for real. She backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each experience, went on to travel solo across Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a TV reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Mogadishu, Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth"--To report on the fighting there. On her fourth day in the country, she and her photojournalist companion were abducted. An astoundingly intimate and harrowing account of Lindhout's fifteen months as a captive, A House in the Sky illuminates the psychology, motivations, and desperate extremism of her young guards and the men in charge of them. She is kept in chains, nearly starved, and subjected to unthinkable abuse. She survives by imagining herself in a "house in the sky," looking down at the woman shackled below, and finding strength and hope in the power of her own mind. Lindhout's decision, upon her release, to counter the violence she endured by founding an organization to help the Somali people rebuild their country through education is a wrenching testament to the capacity of the human spirit and an astonishing portrait of the power of compassion and forgiveness"--
"The spectacularly dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her to the world's most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity--a beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and grace. At the age of eighteen, Amanda Lindhout moved from her hardscrabble hometown to the big city and worked as a cocktail waitress, saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth"--To report on the fighting there. On her fourth day in the country, she and her photojournalist companion were abducted. A House in the Sky illuminates the psychology, motivations, and desperate extremism of Lindhout's young guards and the men in charge of them. She is kept in chains, nearly starved, and subjected to horrific abuse. She survives by imagining herself in a "house in the sky," finding strength and hope in the power of her own mind. Lindhout's decision to counter the violence she endured by founding an organization to help educate Somali people women is a moving testament to the power of compassion and forgiveness"--
I feel a bit bad about only giving this book 3 stars since it's a memoir, and because of it's topic. But that is how I feel about this book. I liked it, I'm not mad about having read it, but also wasn't amazing.
The biggest thing that makes this book a 3 star for me was the very, very slow paced beginning of the book. This is Amanda Lindhouts story about being taken captive in Somalia for 15 months. But for the first third of the book she hasn't even traveled to the country yet. Of course we need some of her back story in the beginning of the book, that's not the problem. My problem is how long that part of the book was. In my opinion that part shouldn't have been more than 50 pages. Amanda's story about her travelling around the world in 120 pages is not why I picked this book up. I wanted to know about her experience in Somalia. And that's the only reason I didn't DNF this book during the first half of the book.
When we did get to the part of the book where she traveled to Somalia and was captured was when I started to want to pick back up the book. Especially towards the end it was so hard to read this book - and not because I didn't like it, but because of all the awful things Amanda had to go trough. I feel like I should say some more about this, but I'm too speechless.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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30 December, 2019:
Finished reading
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30 December, 2019:
Reviewed