Held hostage for 460 days

Many of us remember the 1978 movie Midnight Express, where Billy Hayes is held and tortured by his Turkish captors, as  attempts are made to extract ransom.

Well imagine today, a young woman caught in a similar situation,  kidnaped and held by brutal captors, not because of an attempt to smuggle drugs, but because she was trying to tell a story as a young and struggling and aspiring journalist.  The location was not Turkey, but Mogadishu, Somalia, considered by some, one of the most dangerous places on earth.  What brought Amanda Lindhout to this place, and what in her background gave her the strength and grace to survive a devastating 460 day ordeal?  Her story   A House in the Sky,  tells us a great deal about her, and also about the indomitable resiliency of the human spirit.

My conversation with Amanda Lindhout: