Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian freelance journalist, and Nigel Brennan, an Australian photographer, traveled to Somalia in the summer of 2008 to report on the war raging in this country. What should have been a one-week short trip turned into a 15-month nightmare when Amanda and Nigel were kidnapped by a group of rebels. This book tells Amanda’s harrowing and heartbreaking story. Deeply moving, it is very well written and manages to be strangely uplifting. Despite enduring starvation, torture and sexual abuse, Amanda Lindhout didn’t lose hope of one day being free.
I met Amanda Lindhout when she came to Ottawa on Saturday 26 October 2013. She is a tall, skinny and beautiful young woman, with long dark hair. While she seemed to be doing okay, she told us that she suffers from severe PTSD and that she is afraid of the dark. She credits her family, her psychologist and meditation with helping her heal. She chose to forgive her captors, to let go of the anger and hatred. She explained that this is a gift to herself, not to her kidnappers. In May 2010, Amanda established the Global Enrichment Foundation to allow Somali women to get an education and to fund a famine relief program. Next fall, she is planning to go to university, and she would like to write a book on recovery.
About the author and her work: Amanda Lindhout’s Website
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