A House in the Sky

Amanda Lindhout chose to have a co-writer for the book and found a kindred spirit in Sara Corbett who wasn't just interested in telling the harrowing story of her 15 months of captivity in Somalia. Instead we meet a young Amanda escaping her grim northern Alberta upbringing in the pages of National Geographic. A teenaged Amanda in South America finally visiting those places she'd only read about. A young 20-something globe-trotting Amanda chasing the next big story. Someone who spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan and finds herself in Mogadishu Somalia covering the stories that traditional news outlets weren't. Captured on the road she and her one time boyfriend and photographer are held for 1.5 million each. Amanda endures 15 months of torture, rape, beatings, starvation and more yet maintains her sanity and optimism throughout.

This could have been misery porn, an endless litany of things endured but Amanda infuses it with hope. It's a huge gut punch of a book made even more relevant knowing that one of the kidnappers has been arrested and is facing trial. Now years after her ordeal, Amanda is forced to relive her time in captivity reviewing the thousands of pages of debriefing documents recorded at the time of her release. Events she had buried and forgotten, even things she doesn't mention in the book itself. She exhibits such incredible strength in the pages of the book and continues to prove her fortitude even now.