Description
Book SynopsisTHE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE LONGEST-HELD AL QAEDA CAPTIVE IN THE WORLD
Stephen McGown was en route from London to South Africa, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip by motorbike, returning home to Johannesburg. He had reached Timbuktu, in Mali, when he was captured, along with a Dutch and a Swedish national, by Al Qaeda Islamist militants. Steve was taken because he held a British passport. He was subsequently held hostage at various camps in the Sahara Desert in the north-west of Africa for nearly six years before eventually being released.
Life as Steve had known it changed in that instant that he was taken at gunpoint. He had nothing to bargain with, and everything to lose. For the next six years, he reluctantly engaged in what he came to call the greatest chess game of his life.
Thousands of kilometres to the south, in Johannesburg, the shock of Stephen''s capture struck the McGown family and his wife, Cath, with whom he had, until recently, been living
Trade Review
Provides a compelling look at McGown's strength, fortitude and adaptability along with his instincts that guided his survival during his six-year ordeal. -- Vanessa Banton * news24 *
McGown's struggle includes expanding his vast capacity for forgiveness . . . His exceptional conquest is renouncing implacable enmity and embracing the most exemplary in human nature. This is the Saharan Oasis he brought home. -- Mahmood Sanglay * Muslim Views *
It was the first kidnapping in Timbuktu, in Mali . . . I had my passport in my pocket and I didn't realise. When I realised, it literally felt like the world was coming down around me. I went icy cold and numb. -- Stephen McGown, interviewed on CapeTalk
A book so unlike any other that it keeps you awake at night with a head full of "what ifs" and "if onlys" . . . an excellent read, part adventure story, part psychological drama. -- Lesley Stones
Not just an incredible story of mental strength, physical endurance and the resilience of the human spirit, but also a unique, nuanced perspective on one of the world's most feared terrorist organisations. Not only did Steve survive his ordeal, but in many respects he came out of the desert both a changed man and a stronger, more positive human. * Goodreads *
