Stolen Lives

The title of Malika Oufkir's account of her twenty years as a political prisoner, Stolen Lives, is no understatement.

After her father's arrest and execution for attempting to assassinate the King of Morocco, the king rounded up Malika, her mother, and her five siblings, the youngest a boy of three, and imprisoned them. Their hardships, as well as their stories of unfathomable courage and resilience, finally begins to end when they manage to escape. Unfortunately, even with the press alerted to the obvious human rights infraction, the Oufkirs are not quite free even then.

Using the French writer Michele Fitousssi to assist her in the writing of her story, Malika's tale of going from a pampered play-mate of the king's daughter to a prisoner-in-exile seems like more of a Hollywood screen play than a true story taking place in the 20th century.

Compelling and disturbing, how the Oufkir family managed to survive kept me reading Malika's story and cheering her and her family as they truly beat the odds and a powerful political system.

ETA: As I went online to look for a book jacket image, I see that it was made into a movie. Eh. I'll pass on that and keep the real story instead.