A House in the Sky

<p><b><i>A House in the Sky</i> is the dramatic and redemptive memoir of Amanda Lindhout a woman whose curiosity led her to the world's most beautiful and remote places its most imperiled and perilous countries and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity-an exquisitely written story of courage resilience and grace.<br><br></b>As a child Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of <i>National Geographic</i> and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen working as a cocktail waitress she 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 Bangladesh and India and emboldened by each adventure went on to Sudan Syria and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then in August 2008 she traveled to Somalia-the most dangerous place on earth. On her fourth day she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.<br><br>Held hostage for 460 days Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic receives wife lessons from one of her captors and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert she 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 being tortured.<br><br>Vivid and suspenseful as artfully written as the finest novel <i>A House in the Sky</i> is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity. For fans of the award-winning blockbuster <i>Captain Phillips </i>and readers of Kate McCann's <i>Madeleine </i>Natasha Kampusch's <i>3096 Days</i> and Greg Mortenson's <i>Three Cups of Tea.</i><br><br>Amanda Lindhout is the founder of the Global Enrichment Foundation a non-profit organization that supports development aid and education initiatives in Somalia and Kenya. For more information visit Amandalindhout.com and globalenrichmentfoundation.com<br><br>Sara Corbett is a contributing writer to <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>. Her work has also appeared in <i>National Geographic</i>; <i>Elle</i>; <i>Outside</i>; <i>O the Oprah magazine</i>; <i>Esquire</i>; and <i>Mother Jones</i>.</p>