The weight of sand : my 450 days held hostage in the Sahara
An evocative, earth-shattering memoir about one woman's kidnapping and 450 days of captivity at the hands of terrorists--and her stunning escape to freedom. In January 2019, news outlets reported that a young Canadian woman and her Italian companion were presumed kidnapped while traveling in Africa's Sahel region, a haven for Islamic terrorists. Little was known about the pair's fate until they reappeared in Mali more than one year later, having apparently escaped their captors. Now, in The Weight of Sand, Edith Blais describes her harrowing hostage experience for the first time--and reveals that writing poetry in secret helped save her life. Edith recounts the prolonged terror of her months as a hostage, enduring violent sandstorms, constant relocations, grueling hunger strikes, extreme isolation, and the unpredictability of her captors. She also shares the luminous poems she wrote in secret with a borrowed pen, which became a lifeline of creativity and one of the few possessions she smuggled out in her escape, strapped to her leg under her clothes. A compelling descent into a strange, brutal universe, The Weight of Sand is ultimately a life-affirming book--a celebration of resilience by a woman who refused to have her humanity stripped away from her. Includes original art by the author featured in the endpapers of the book.
Available Copies by Location
Location | |
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Community Centre | Available |
Browse Related Items
Subject |
Blais, Edith, 1984- > Captivity. Blais, Edith, 1984- > Kidnapping. Hostages > Sahara > Biography. Kidnapping victims > Sahara > Biography. Hostages > Canada > Biography. Kidnapping victims > Canada > Biography. Terrorism > Sahara. |
Genre |
Autobiographies. |
- ISBN: 9781771649094
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Physical Description
print
276 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm - Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2021.
Content descriptions
Language Note: | Translated from the French. |
Additional Information
Table of Contents
The Weight of Sand : My 450 Days Held Hostage in the Sahara
Section | Section Description | Page Number |
---|---|---|
I Am Myself | p. 1 | |
Part I | Europe-Togo | |
1 | Crossroads | p. 5 |
Little Nomad | p. 11 | |
2 | Itinerary | p. 12 |
The Dancer | p. 15 | |
3 | Chaos | p. 16 |
A World Condemned | p. 19 | |
4 | The Frenchman | p. 20 |
5 | The Village | p. 22 |
6 | Mistake | p. 26 |
Part II | The Mujahideen | |
Shivers | p. 31 | |
7 | Ambush | p. 32 |
Death | p. 35 | |
8 | Among the Fula People | p. 36 |
9 | The Third Day | p. 40 |
10 | The Trade | p. 44 |
Part III | Into the Desert | |
One Day More | p. 49 | |
11 | The Man in Blue | p. 50 |
In the Maze | p. 54 | |
12 | The Leader | p. 55 |
Sands of Time | p. 57 | |
Part IV | The Desert Arabs | |
Nightmare | p. 61 | |
13 | Barbarossa | p. 62 |
14 | Dentone | p. 64 |
15 | Flight of the Mujahideen | p. 68 |
Nomads | p. 73 | |
16 | The Fast | p. 74 |
Nothing | p. 81 | |
17 | The Fast, Part 2 | p. 82 |
18 | Eyeglasses | p. 87 |
Tom | p. 91 | |
Part V | The Women | |
Daughter of the Dunes | p. 95 | |
19 | The White Tent | p. 96 |
20 | Poetry | p. 100 |
Lady Light | p. 104 | |
21 | Five Months | p. 105 |
Secret Garden | p. 110 | |
22 | Storms in the Sahara | p. 112 |
The Storm | p. 115 | |
Part VI | The Migration | |
The Edge of the World | p. 119 | |
23 | The Hunt | p. 120 |
24 | Racing North | p. 123 |
End of the World | p. 127 | |
25 | Sandstorm | p. 129 |
Patience | p. 131 | |
Part VII | The Tuareg People | |
26 | Ball-Buster the Groundhog | p. 135 |
For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls | p. 138 | |
27 | The Flood | p. 139 |
The Wildflower | p. 144 | |
28 | Solitude | p. 145 |
Ghost Ship | p. 149 | |
29 | Baba | p. 150 |
The Letter | p. 156 | |
30 | Sculpture | p. 157 |
Madness and the Statue in the Sand | p. 160 | |
31 | Rebellion | p. 161 |
Wild Soul | p. 167 | |
32 | Crazy Eyes | p. 168 |
The Gods | p. 172 | |
33 | The Video | p. 174 |
Thunderstruck | p. 177 | |
34 | Conversion | p. 178 |
Falling | p. 185 | |
35 | Race Against the Setting Sun | p. 186 |
Scene | p. 188 | |
Part VIII | Suleiman and Asiya | |
In Dreamland | p. 191 | |
36 | Suleiman | p. 192 |
37 | The Road | p. 194 |
Forest of the Lost | p. 199 | |
38 | Husband and Wife | p. 200 |
Mask of Glass | p. 203 | |
Part IX | The Escape | |
Upside Down | p. 207 | |
39 | Planning | p. 209 |
Mystery | p. 212 | |
40 | Preparations | p. 213 |
41 | Night | p. 217 |
Of Hope and Darkness | p. 224 | |
42 | Freedom at Daybreak | p. 225 |
Guardian Angel | p. 231 | |
Part X | Three Countries | |
43 | Mali | p. 235 |
44 | The Embassy | p. 242 |
45 | Germany | p. 246 |
46 | Canada | p. 253 |
Life | p. 259 | |
Map | p. 260 | |
Epilogue: A Letter to Life | p. 263 | |
Postscript: A Letter From Luca | p. 267 | |
Afterword: Al-Qaeda in the Heart of West Africa David Morin and François Audet | p. 269 | |
Acknowledgments | p. 275 |