Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club)

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club) | Malika Oufkir, Michele Fitoussi, ... | Amazing Story to be Told

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Stolen Lives: Twen...

	Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club) Malika Oufkir, Michele Fitoussi, ... Miramax, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 245 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller--the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege.

Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996.

A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom.

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Haunting, Beautiful, Courageous!

I thoroughly enjoyed Stolen Lives. The ordeal Malika Oufkir and her family suffered is astonishing. It really pained me to read through her true accounts of riches to less-than-rags. The Oufkirs were fortunate and strong to have survived through it all.

I felt that the writing was fine. Even if it was not, the story was so powerful, I would have enjoyed it anyway. There are many books out there that are fluffy, shallow, and very well written. I prefer to read works that are deep, educational, and so powerful that they leave a lasting impression - like this book!

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Amazing Story to be Told

This book was just amazing. The story she tells keeps you on the edge of your seat. Truly spine tingling. It's a book that provokes alot of soul-searching.What's life really about? How do people survive such things as those described in this book? A good book.

A Story That Stays With You

I read this books some years ago and still can't get it out of my head because of how incredible the real life events were. For a Westerner, the tale is imazing. As a woman, I was dumb-founded by the sentence given to an entire family by the Moroccan Royalty for a crime that none of them committed. The book really opened my eyes about the differences between democratic societies and those ruled by royalty dictators. This is a book I always recommends to others to read.

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Stolen Lives

Incredible story. I just recently returned from Morocco, and while there wondered how many such prisoners are still lingering in the country's prisons. The people of Morocco and kind and friendly, as a whole friendlier than in most countries I have visited. Not once did I hear an unkind word or saw a grumpy face on people I encountered. Absolutely lovely. With that in mind, in the story of her 20 years of imprisonment and the subsequent "Freedom" describing the return to life outside a prison system, the kindness and forgiveness she expresses are much easier to understand.

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Great story telling

This story definitely will keep you reading on and on into the night. I was turning the pages trying to find out what would happen in the end.
The first of the book is bittersweet, but has many moments of joy. The second half, however, is a terrible account of incarceration in some of the worst conditions possible.
I really liked this book because the story telling kept my interest. The main character of the novel is my only complaint. I know this is her story, but sometimes she seemed like she was telling a story of how she saved her family almost totally by herself. This part seemed a bit contrived since there was eight of them in jail. I think another reviewer said they would have liked to hear more about the siblings and their contributions. I think this is what I might have wanted as well, but seeing this was Malika's telling of the story, I assume she was answering for herself and what she was thinking.
Aside from the fact, I found the story very Malika centered at times although there were eight in jail, I can definitely recommend it.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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