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>3,096 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> <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>3,096 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>