A House in the Sky: A Memoir
SynopsisPlot
As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself visiting 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. 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.
Story
About this book
Amanda Lindhout grew up in rural Alberta, Canada, and first left a violent household in her imagination, turning the pages of old issues of National Geographic. Working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, she saved her tips for airfare. Her early routes crossed Latin America and parts of Asia, among them Laos, Bangladesh and India. Sudan, Syria and Pakistan followed, then television reporting work in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In August 2008 she travelled to Somalia to report on the conflict. On her fourth day in the country, she and a photojournalist working alongside her were seized by masked men on a dusty road. The captivity lasted 460 days. She was held in chains, given very little food, and abused. Written with Sara Corbett, the memoir traces the mental methods she used to endure.
The title refers to a place she built in her mind, a house in the sky above the room where she was kept. The account also looks at her guards, many of them young men, and at those who gave the orders, describing the conditions and beliefs behind their behaviour. After her release, Lindhout founded an organization supporting education in Somalia.
