New York : Scribner, 2014.

Book

First Scribner paperback edition.

373 pages ; 21 cm

English

9781451645613, 9781451645606 : HRD, 1451645600 : HRD, 9781451645613, 9781451645606 (HRD), 1451645600 (HRD), 9781451645606, 1451645600, 1451645619 :, 1451645619

Includes a Scribner reading group guide.

"New York Times Bestseller" -- cover.

"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"--,Provided by publisher.

"At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress, Amanda Lindhout began 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, and India. Emboldened by each adventure, she went on to Sudan, Syria, and warridden Afghanistan and Iraq, where she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, August 2008, she traveled to Somalia--"the most dangerous placed on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda survives on memory--every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity--and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark. A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity." -- back cover.

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