by Emily Caruso

It is every journalist’s worst nightmare: reporting abroad in a dangerous war-torn foreign country, only to be kidnapped by a group of extremist rebels. The common nightmare turned reality when freelance journalists, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, were taken from their car and held for a ransom of three million dollars whilst traveling in Somalia in 2008, one of the world’s most dangerous countries at the time. After a seemingly endless 470 days of being tied up, beaten, and raped, Lindhout and Brennan were released to their families.

Years later in 2013, Lindhout along with co-writer Sara Corbett, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, released their first book, A House in the Sky, as a part of Lindhout’s healing process. The memoir of her life details not only her horrific kidnapping, but also her childhood, telling stories of growing up in poverty and having divorced parents. Circumstances that are all-to-relatable for many. She writes about how her passion for traveling sprouted from finding old National Geographic magazines in dumpsters and thrift shops. Inspired, she worked as a cocktail waitress saving her money to travel around the world for months at a time living on a tight budget through parts of Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. Despite coming in contact with harsh sexist customs and war zones throughout her travels, Lindhout experiences a feeling of invincibility, saying, “Always push forward, no matter what,” an attitude that resulted in her visiting over 50 countries.
A vast majority of the beginning of the book consists of non-stop adventures; readers can feel her passion for traveling almost as if it is passed on through the page. It is not until about 100 pages in before she experiences anything to grotesque.

However her depiction of being held against her will is not a tale filled with graphic gore causing readers to avert their eyes, much like that of Jaycee Dugard’s book, A Stolen Life, where she recollects being kidnapped for 18 years of her life. Instead, Lindhout’s book is a remarkable story christened with an impeccable outlook on life along with a “coming of age” feel for readers.

Lindhout’s memorable memoir does not lie within the story, but it is her state of mind that makes her extraordinary. After perpetual gang rapes by her captors, starving for days, and even an escape plan gone wrong, Lindhout remains positive throughout her book leaving no room for self-pity. Instead she practiced compassion with her captors, thinking that there must have been a reason they were as cruel as they were, thus taking an interest in their lives and offering her sympathy. Upon their visits she would ask about their girlfriends and Muslim customs. When feeling particularly down, Lindhout would create an alternate life for herself to get through the days, writing, “In my mind, I built stairways. At the end of the stairways, I imagined rooms. These were high, airy places with big windows and a cool breeze moving through. I imagined one room opening brightly onto another room until I’d built a house, a place with hallways and more staircases. I built many houses, one after another, and those gave rise to a city — a calm, sparkling city near the ocean, a place like Vancouver. I put myself there, and that’s where I lived, in the wide-open sky of my mind. I made friends and read books and went running on a footpath in a jewel-green park along the harbor. I ate pancakes drizzled in syrup and took baths and watched sunlight pour through trees. This wasn’t longing, and it wasn’t insanity. It was relief. It got me through.”

Her writing style, accompanied by her cowriter Corbett, is elegant and thoughtfully pieced together transferring the reader around the world to the barren deserts of Somalia. Readers are right there with Lindhout as she tries to escape her captors, running through a mosque pleading for help. Readers can feel the barrel of her captor’s gun pressed harshly against their foreheads as their lives are threatened to cease. But beyond the physical atrocities, readers feel Lindhout’s outlook influencing them to count each of their blessings, no matter how small and insignificant they may feel.

Lindhout is practical, making the decision to convert to Islam as a survival tactic after being scolded for being Christian. She studies the Koran as if she were a lawyer, looking for various loopholes for when her captors abuse her, claiming that it is a sin in the Koran. However, she finds that the Koran permits abuse to anyone who has been kidnapped, thus excusing her kidnappers’ behavior. She finds Muslim culture to be brutal towards women. She in treated completely differently from her fellow journalist Nigel Brennan.

While Lindhout seems to capture the heart of her readers, her mistake is not informing readers enough about Muslim culture. For Western readers, it is easy to become lost between all of the culture without having it explained. What does “inshallah” mean and why do they always say it? Why is everyone fighting in Somalia again? What is that Muslim holiday and what exactly is she wearing? These are all-too-common thoughts for readers as they go back and skim the pages of the book looking for the answers. A reader’s guide would be nice in the back of the book to explain the culture, almost necessary to appreciate the book as a whole.

Once unsure of her place in the world, Lindhout fills that void with A House in the Sky. Through her pages filled with horror comes a story about staying strong even when it seems nearly impossible. After a long recovery, she now works in Somalia helping educate women as the founder of the Global Enrichment Foundation. She sheds her courage to readers inspiring them to be just as courageous as she was during those 470 days in captivity.