Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail

Oufkir, Malika; Fitoussi, Michele

ISBN 10: 0786871040 ISBN 13: 9780786871049

Publisher: Hyperion AudioBooks, 2001

Synopsis

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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Reviews

Brychta's suave and subtle Arabic lilt perfectly capture this first-person narration of a Moroccan family's harsh exile as punishment for the transgressions of its patriarch. After enjoying a fairy tale upbringing as the adopted daughter of King Muhammad V in his palace, Oufkir, along with her mother and siblings, was imprisoned in a succession of desert jails after her father engineered a failed coup against the king's heir, King Hassan II, in 1972. The Oufkirs were forced to endure 20 years of solitude, infested prison cells and the ever-worsening depravity of their captors. Oufkir worked with Fitoussi to produce a crisp memoir that bristles with imagery, perhaps owing to Oufkir's continual storytelling in jail to try to keep her family's misery temporarily at bay. The production is gracefully laced with haunting Middle Eastern airs, which, in conjunction with Brychta's voice, render a truly otherworldly feel. A central tension here is in the currency of a story that seems possible only in an age long gone. A chronicle of endurance and the aftereffects of a grim ordeal, this engaging recording inspires as just as much indignation as it does admiration. Based on the Talk Miramax hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 29).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From spoiled palace darling to political prisoner, Oufkir has a life that is the stuff of fiction come horribly true. After her father's failed coup and execution, the King of Morocco imprisoned Oufkir and her family members in remote and harsh surroundings. Eventually some escaped, but not before years and years of privation. This is a tale that demands to be heard read by someone whose voice commands attention--not by decibel level, but by timbre, urgency, and faultless pronunciation. Edita Brychta IS Malika, the teenage party girl made wiser by hindsight and transformed into a tough and inventive captive determined to keep her family alive and sane. The abridgment flows well and, fortunately, includes some descriptive details of palace life such as the harem, the existence of which Malika takes for granted but Westerners would not. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion AudioBooks
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786871040
• ISBN 13: 9780786871049
• Binding: Audio Cassette