tinniebelles 's review for:

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Michèle Fitoussi, Malika Oufkir
4.0
dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
A gripping story of grief, suffering, love and family. I love that this memoir was written (or at least translated) simply. There weren't a lot of flowery, poetic phrases or metaphors. It felt like Malika Oufkir was telling me her story in person. The way she described her palace life was fascinating. I have never seen a Moroccan palace before but her vivid accounts of its architecture, its cultures and traditions made me feel like I was there myself. This same vivid imagery is present in her accounts of her prison life. It was horrifying to learn what they had gone through for sins they hadn't committed.

Despite all that, I think that this could have been edited more in a way that the events followed a linear time progression. Yes, this book was sectioned according to timeline, but within each section, the authors chose a theme-based approach. This confused me as we are going back and forth in time. Another minor complaint: some parts of the book felt choppy from writing one short sentence after another and another.

But overall, I am glad this book found me. This made me curious about the historical events in Morocco surrounding this book. The Oufkir family suffered so much for crimes they did not commit. Their story, and those of the hundreds other political prisoners, deserves to be heard and talked about even to this day. 
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