This story definitely will keep you reading on and on into the night. I was turning the pages trying to find out what would happen in the end.
The first of the book is bittersweet, but has many moments of joy. The second half, however, is a terrible account of incarceration in some of the worst conditions possible.
I really liked this book because the story telling kept my interest. The main character of the novel is my only complaint. I know this is her story, but sometimes she seemed like she was telling a story of how she saved her family almost totally by herself. This part seemed a bit contrived since there was eight of them in jail. I think another reviewer said they would have liked to hear more about the siblings and their contributions. I think this is what I might have wanted as well, but seeing this was Malika's telling of the story, I assume she was answering for herself and what she was thinking.
Aside from the fact, I found the story very Malika centered at times although there were eight in jail, I can definitely recommend it.

I read this books some years ago and still can't get it out of my head because of how incredible the real life events were. For a Westerner, the tale is imazing. As a woman, I was dumb-founded by the sentence given to an entire family by the Moroccan Royalty for a crime that none of them committed. The book really opened my eyes about the differences between democratic societies and those ruled by royalty dictators. This is a book I always recommends to others to read.

This book was just amazing. The story she tells keeps you on the edge of your seat. Truly spine tingling. It's a book that provokes alot of soul-searching.What's life really about? How do people survive such things as those described in this book? A good book.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stolen Lives. The ordeal Malika Oufkir and her family suffered is astonishing. It really pained me to read through her true accounts of riches to less-than-rags. The Oufkirs were fortunate and strong to have survived through it all.

I felt that the writing was fine. Even if it was not, the story was so powerful, I would have enjoyed it anyway. There are many books out there that are fluffy, shallow, and very well written. I prefer to read works that are deep, educational, and so powerful that they leave a lasting impression - like this book!

Incredible story. I just recently returned from Morocco, and while there wondered how many such prisoners are still lingering in the country's prisons. The people of Morocco and kind and friendly, as a whole friendlier than in most countries I have visited. Not once did I hear an unkind word or saw a grumpy face on people I encountered. Absolutely lovely. With that in mind, in the story of her 20 years of imprisonment and the subsequent "Freedom" describing the return to life outside a prison system, the kindness and forgiveness she expresses are much easier to understand.

Meet the Oufkir family. This is the printed condensation of their amazing survival.

Malika Oufikir, aided by writer Michele Fitoussi, recounts the plunge from the heights of an extremely privileged, if secluded, life, mostly lived at the Royal Moroccan court, and a life which later landed herself and her family into gaol, in 1972. A drastic change for everybody -but "drastic" is almost a diminishing adjective for what they went through-, including the two family retainers who had volunteered to share their fate. This was the result of a failed military coup against King Hassan II, led by Malika's father, General Oufkir, who was shot immediately after. Wife Fatima and their six children, aged between 19 (Malika) and 3 and a half (Abdellatif) were sent to prison. Deprivations, humiliations, isolation -even among themselves, they were not allowed to see each other for many years- lack of hygiene, food, water, medicines and contending their space with various rodents, cockroaches, scorpions, in the chilling cold or the most stifling heat, inability to see the light -they were kept in almost total darkness-. Up until the day when, 15 years later, with the resilience of the totally desperate, some of them managed to escape, Malika included. The tale of their evasion is chilling from beginning to end. But it also led to the liberation of the others left behind. Nobody could believe that the Oufkir children had reemerged from nothingness, but they managed to alert the relevant authorities, international press and word went out. They were all subsequently moved to a different location where they were still imprisoned but at least with more dignity -if one may use this term in the circumstances-. This went on for another 4 years. And then... freedom finally knocked at their door. Almost twenty years had gone by.

Forget for a minute about politics, religions, different countries, traditions, beliefs. Sufferings do not bear different classifications depending on whom we are, what we do. To suffer is to suffer, anywhere on this planet, and no one is immune. But. To pay up in such dramatic way for something beyond your control is just inhuman. Malika's voice, plain yet effective, summarizes details which induce cringing sensations.

Some reviewers comment on Malika's self-centeredness, sensing a certain degree of superiority, no doubt deriving, in my opinion, from the imprint of her privileged upbringing, which might have added a somewhat unsympathetic nuance to the story. Others remark that there are inconsistencies. It is true in some instances. From a personal point of view, I myself never quite understood why Malika was adopted into the royal family. It could be Moroccan customs or traditions of which I am not aware, but it was never really explained.
But. Never mind. Let's face the facts, get to the gist. Prisoners for twenty years for something they didn't commit? Children raised into squalor and fear, without an ounce of dignity? Let us keep things into perspective and grant Malika and the others the deserved praise for enduring their adverse fate and unfathomable conditions, never letting go, organizing their great escape against all odds. Without her, who dug and bled, bled and dug for months, relentlessly, this could not have happened, and none of us would have read this book.

A single, soaring voice raising above a twenty-year-long cry in the dark, reminding us that for one who manages to survive, many other faceless, nameless beings perish silently, in many different countries, for many different reasons, their weeping unheard, obliterated by enforced silence.
Read this book and count your blessings.

This book touch me so much i every it so much. This book inspire and enlighten me and show me a little of what goes on in other part the world and what women and people have to go through. To see the strength and desire one have to endure and survive and show that world. THis book touch my life. Good book. I love Oprah so much as she has allowed me to open a new world and that is reading i love Oprah book club and i try to read as much of Oprah book. She is my idol i worship her. I love you Oprah you are light in the dark night.

This was a very touching story. As some people have mentioned it is very simply written. But I believe it gets the story across even though it is written in this manner. She tells of the conditions she and her family and a family friend endured when imprisoned for 20 years. Going from a luxury jail to prison conditions that are beyond what anyone can imagine. It is not a story you read for fun but one to make you see what others go though. I am glad Malika shared hers and her familys' story with us. I will never forget this book. I would definatley recommend this book for all to read.

I recommend this book if you want to escape from your normal daily life to experience the trials and tribulations of the author. I felt as though I was her at times and felt her pain and joy. It is an excellent read and also informative of a different culture.

As some other reviewers have said, this book is sometimes difficult to read. There were times when I had to make myself keep reading, not because the story wasn't good but because the book is somewhat of a laborious read. It's often difficult to continue to pay attention, but it is certainly worth the commitment. It's a unique story that makes you appreciate everything you have.

After reading STOLEN LIVES, I was able to grasp (as much as is possible) what it must have been like for Oufkir and her family to live in the horrific prison conditions they did, but I wasn't able to grasp how long "20 years" of captivity is. So, I went back to the book. It's 294 pages long, which is approximately 10,800 lines of text (if every page is full). If I divide the text into .7 line segments and read one segment a day, it will take me 7300 days, or 20 years, to read the whole book. That is an excruciatingly long time, longer than I'd care to imagine.

I am very disappointed in some of the reviews that I have read about this book; thank goodness they are the minority. Yes, I agree that it was poorly edited, and the story that was being relayed really could have been told better. It disturbs me that some of the reviewers almost appeared to attack the author. This lady is not an author/writer; she's no Stephen King or Dan Brown. Those authors have the advantage of fiction on their respective sides. Malika Oufkir had no such advantage. She is a survivor who had to actually live the hell that she describes in her book.

Imagine being a political prisoner - your only crime being that you were related to someone who either did something terrible against the country or "allegedly" did so - you are living in conditions of squalor. Your captors want you to die, but don't want to necessarily pull the trigger. You are starved, not allowed outside, not allowed to see or feel the sun, and deprived of the most basic information such as the date and time. You watch your sister pick the rat droppings from pieces of stale bread before "happily" consuming it. You watch your three-year old brother's life as a political prisoner. That's what you lived for most of two decades. Finally, years after being released, you get the courage to tell your story so that the world has a chance to know what you have been through, and that political imprisonment is not the cake walk or country club behind bars that it has been touted through the years. For months, you fight through the tears and the recollections of the circumstances and events that above all, you mostly want to forget. Then, proud that you were able to clear that final hurdle, you read the book reviews on Amazon only to find that one reader finds the book "difficult to believe" and even "boring." The nerve of some people to sit in their air conditioned homes with their refrigerator and freezer full, to sit at their computer with access to the world, to not be able to look past the flaws of the book to see the real story. If this was fiction, I could see the criticism, but given the storyline and the simple fact that it was fact, I simply cannot justify attacking the author about the quality of the book. Her experience has forever changed her and her reaction to life itself.

Bottom line - this was a riveting story that could have been a riveting book. I give the story itself 5+ stars. I hope Ms. Oufkir and her family are proud that they survived such an incredulous nightmare. I was left wanting more information, but I personally feel fortunate to have received what information I got; Ms. Oufkir didn't have to put her ordeal in writing. The editing gets one star. The editor and publisher failed Ms. Oufkir and should be ashamed that her story was not given the very best attention to detail. It almost seems as though the book was rushed to go to print, and Ms. Oufkir's story suffered the consequences. And that is a real travesty.

Because of her father's treachery in attempting to assassinate the king of Morocco, Malika, her mother, her siblings and two family friends are imprisoned in the desert. For years they live in tiny cells infested with bugs and mice who battle them for their near-starvation rations. Finally they make a desperate move to tunnel out of their prison and alert the international news media of their imprisonment, which puts sufficient pressure on the king to free them.

Malika's life wasn't always so bad, though. In fact, when she was five, the king adopted her to live in the palace as a companion to his daughter. Although she missed her family and felt trapped in her life as royalty, Malika was well fed and well brought up and had all of the luxuries life could hand out to a child. This makes her subsequent imprisonment all the more shocking, especially as it is at the hands of her adopted family.

I found this book a bit scattered. The author would state in passing something she would then address later, which gave me the feeling of a great deal of jumping around. She also tries a bit too hard to make a connection between life in the palace and life in prison, which I thought was more than a small stretch. Although the author argues that she was never really "free" to do what she wanted while living with the royals, what child ever is free to do what he or she wants? There were few incidents of her being treated cruelly while growing up, and she wanted for nothing, yet she tried to paint herself as a poor sad little child. This tended to make me feel less sorry for her, rather than more.

The part of the book dealing with the family's prison life was horrifying almost beyond belief, yet was dealt with in such a casual tone of voice that I found it hard to get as outraged and sad as I felt I should have been. Something about the tone of the book just didn't strike the right note with me.

There is nothing "gripping" about this book. The beginning of the book, the tale of life with the King, is interesting. Once the family is arrested and incarcerated, it becomes boring beyond belief - and this is the part of the book that should be riveting! Instead, I found the narration totally self-centered and the "story" absolutely colorless. I quit reading about page 138 (just after the escape) because at that point I could have cared less what happened to this family. The travesty is that these events were real and I should feel outrage and compassion for this family. Instead, I'm annoyed I spent money on this horribly written/edited/translated book!

I found this story to be an inspirational account of a young girl's struggle from the palace to a jail cell. The orginial controversy of punnishing children for their father's actions developed the story into a thrilling drama. It was a compelling and gripping story, but they way it was written was a little off. Some of the sentances were difficult to read because of the way the words were written. I did not like how the writer kept jumping to the past and present to explain events. This made it confusing to determine what details were current and which already occured.

I read the book for a book club. I was disappointed. The story was very self-centered. Also,difficult to believe, but a bit boring.

I won't go into too much detail but must agree with those who thought that the story had potential but the book was poorly written and edited. But I can't honestly blame the writer. Millions of poorly written books are submitted to publishing houses each year. It was up to the editor and publisher to really go to town on this book. It's possible they improved it from really bad to ok to print, but like other reviewers, i could hardly get through this for my book club. I felt like i was reading the diary of a middle school aged girl! Furthermore, Oufkir is clearly repressed or supressing her own feelings. Her explorations of her feelings were surface at best. I didn't feel any depth of emotion on her part, whatsoever. She also comes off sounding smug and superior, when I imagine she may not be that way in real life.

Had this not been for my book club, and had i not had integrity to finish it so i could fully trash it at book club, i would not have gotten past page 35.

Malika Oufkir's childhood was one of luxury and indulgence as the informally adopted daughter of King Muhammed V of Morocco and companion to Princess Amina. That life was gone in an instant when Malika's father, General Oufkir, was implicated in an abortive coup against the regime. The General was summarily shot; Oufkir's wife and six children -- the eldest, 19-year old Malika, and the youngest a baby only three - were rounded up, placed under house arrest and then dispatched without legal recourse to a series of remote desert prisons, each more isolated, squalid and inhospitable than the last.
Their jailers had their instructions: " Subdue the Oufkirs. King's orders".

"Stolen Lives" is Malika's story of 15 years incarceration in some of the worst hell-holes on earth, where the family endured cold, near starvation, vermin, petty jailors, disease and despair. Realizing that they would never be released; that they would die there, forgotten, the now grownup children dug a tunnel, using little more than their bare hands, and four of them escaped. Pursued by police and rebuffed by old friends, they reached Tangier and broke their story to the foreign press. Eventually the authorities were embarrassed into freeing the entire family.

This is a story of ingenuity, perseverance and unbelievable courage in the face of horrific odds. The events described are beyond shocking; it is considered inhumane to confine animals or the worst criminals in such conditions. It is unspeakable that these acts were perpetrated on children, and incredible that they survived.

What kind of regime imprisons children for the sins of their father? "That kind of thing can't happen here", you say. After all, "Liberty" and Freedom" is enshrined in our Constitution/Bill of Rights.
But it can and does, although the difference may be only one of degree.

You need look no further than March 2007, and the case of Kevin, the 9-year old Canadian-born son of Iranian parents. The family (with admittedly stolen documents) were held in a US detention centre, ie., cramped cells in a former medium security Texas prison, for over a month after they were taken off a Canada-bound plane which had been forced to land in Puerto Rico due to an on-board medical emergency. Kevin got the attention of the media & an appalled Canadian public (well, some of us were appalled) when he sent a desperate letter to Canada's Prime Minister, pleading for release.
Canadian Immigration may have been embarrassed by adverse press coverage into offering temporary asylum to the family; the Bush Administration, it seems, is impervious to embarrassment.

I urge you to read "Stolen Lives". This book shines a small light on the abuses that are inflicted routinely on the innocent and helpless in places that we may know only from the six o'clock news. But it might also lead you to reflect, as I did, on recent limits that our governments have placed on human rights (no doubt the King of Morocco was fearful of his safety too), and to ask whether our guarantees of freedom and liberty are worth the paper they are written on.

This is NOT the kind of book I usually like, and in fact I tried to skip over large parts and cast it away many times initially. But once I realized what cohesiveness and love this family had for each other, I couldn't 'abandon' them! In fact, it reads like a suspense novel in many ways, and even when it gets extremely bleak, Malika manages to give hope behind the despair.

I highly recommend this book both for the personal travails of this family, and for how much regimes that suppress freedoms can crush individual humanity. As one reviewer said, this isn't even the worst of what happens in such countries.

I object to the reviewers who say Malika is too 'self centered'. Such comments show how little empathy they have for this wretched family. It was evident that Malika was trying everything she could to keep her family together. This is called heroics, not self absorption. I have some sympathy with those who found the book difficult to read. It took about a chapter before it became compelling to me. I discount, however, those who condemn books as 'poorly written' despite their ability to draw people in and tell a captivating story. Malika did this here, and did a splendid job.

This is NOT the kind of book I usually like, and in fact I tried to skip over large parts and cast it away many times initially. But once I realized what cohesiveness and love this family had for each other, I couldn't 'abandon' them! In fact, it reads like a suspense novel in many ways, and even when it gets extremely bleak, Malika manages to give hope behind the despair.

I highly recommend this book both for the personal travails of this family, and for how much regimes that suppress freedoms can crush individual humanity. As one reviewer said, this isn't even the worst of what happens in such countries.

I object to the reviewers who say Malika is too 'self centered'. Such comments show how little empathy they have for this wretched family. It was evident that Malika was trying everything she could to keep her family together. This is called heroics, not self absorption. I have some sympathy with those who found the book difficult to read. It took about a chapter before it became compelling to me. I discount, however, those who condemn books as 'poorly written' despite their ability to draw people in and tell a captivating story. Malika did this here, and did a splendid job.

This book is one of my favorites because the story really makes you introspective about your own life. I kept thinking about what I was doing when I was her age or her little brothers age and how fortunate I am and have been throughout my 36 years on earth.
Please give this book a read. It is worth it.

This is one of the most harrowing stories I have ever read. It is usually the type of true life story that many will say they find hard to believe. But I believe it to the core...some of the details are so horrific that there is no way anyone would even want to make it up. I almost wished that I didn't read it because I don't want to believe that someone who is King of a such a beautiful country would treat children (that he knew and loved) in such a horrific way. In reading the reviews I am not sure if many of the readers are aware that the book was translated from French to English and that translations even under the best of circumstances are very to hard to convey to the reader,i.e. the original intent. Also because Morocco is so close to France, I'm sure that the average French person is very familiar with the political situation in that country which is why the authors did not concentrate on the political aspects of Morocco. Perhaps the writers did not know they were going to write for an international audience, which is often the case. Regardless, this book is the Grimmest fairy tale that you will ever read!

I found the book exciting and moving. Of course any book can not describe all events in great detail . But what it chooses to describe, it does well in a straightforward approach. The narration is simple and to the point, which is what I like.

This is a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime comitted by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contraditions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader.

The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to engulf his family.

After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years.

As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money.

After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised.

Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape which brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a deperate break for freedom.

The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events that led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents.

Malika comes across as a somewhat self absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations.

Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.

I honestly didn't finish this book.

When I purchased it, I just knew it would be the type of tale that would leave me horrified and full of indignation at the injustice.

The story is definitely one that needs light shone on it, but the writing was SO awful that I simply could not continue to read the book.

I'm not a terribly discerning reader. I love books of all kinds. I'm not one of those snobby literature geeks that can't bear to read a page-turner because it would just be too trite. Yet even I couldn't get through this book.

This story really should be re-written by a better author.

I enjoyed it completely, especially knowing it's not just some make-believe tale. I found it to be written in a very honest straightforward way, despite bad reviews. Truth is truth and should be told as is.

She went through hell. Yes! She showed tremendous courage. Yes! But in the telling of this book the scenes, characters, events, timeline and happenings are jumbled up in a childlike rendition of a most difficult life in captivity. This book reminded me of a 5th graders reading assignment. Malika's focus is not so much more than "am I still pretty" while in her various jails. Some of the stoty makes no sense ( the hidden radio hookup between cells) along with many other events that are difficult to believe.

I can proudly say that I am NOT a fan of Oprah and am just as disinterested in her book club. However, my wife encouraged me to read this book and I do not regret doing so. This is a wonderful story of perseverance and strength. To endure what Malika and her family endured for so many years and survive to tell this story is amazing. I am eagerly awaiting her second book to be released any day now.

The author began her life as a child of privilege in Morocco; she lived as an adopted daughter of the king having nearly everything she wanted - except her family. Although she knew the royal family loved her, they were not demonstrative and she didn't receive affection from her family because she so rarely saw them. She compares the isolation of palace life to her future confinement in exile.
True, the story doesn't elaborate on the political situation which resulted in her family's years in prison, but the story is told from her perspective, what she knew, when she knew it. Occasionally she includes facts which she learned later.
Sometimes she seems impassionate with respect to the horrendous conditions which her family experienced during their nearly 20 years of exile. I feel this is in part a product of the emotional disappointments she experienced in her early years at the palace. Also, depersonalizing the situation became a survival strategy for the family. This detachment is reflected in the tone of her writings.
This is a very human story about an inhumane situation. I found it amazing that all of the family members and their two friends were able to survive such deplorable conditions.

Malika Oufkir is the oldest child of assasinated General Oufkir of Morocco. She spent the earliest years of her life as the adopted daughter of King Muhammad V, adopted to be the companion to his own daughter. After the King's death, Malika remained in the royal palace under King Hassan II, but as a teenager, ached to be reunited with her true family and finally left the palace. Not long after, her father, the General, was involved in a coup to overthrough the King and was killed for his treason. Malkia, her mother, and the rest of her siblings along with two family friends were then jailed for the next twenty years as political prisoners - their only crime? Being the family of the General.

For the next twenty years, the Oufkir family was left to die in desert jails provided with little to no contact with the outside world, and sparce food, most of which was spoiled and rotten. They remained close to each other inventing ways to mentally survive captivity. This novel details the most inhumane forms of imprisonment, and leads up to their daring escape and ultimate freedom.

No one can fail to be moved by the horrendous experience the Oufkir's suffered. This narrative exposes the unfathomable treatment that they, and undoubtedly other political prisoners, suffered at the hands of King Hassan II. What is particularly upsetting is that these conditions existed in recent years - not long long ago in ancient times where levels of humanity might not be assumed. But they were not given their freedom until 1991. It is outrageous to discover that Moroccan citizens endured this torture in the 20th Century and that still today, many are among the "disappeared." Unfortunately, where this book fails is the tone that it takes in conveying the story. The writing is very matter of fact, devoid of emotion, and does not do justice to the underlying story. The story turns the pages, not the writing. At times it borders on bland.

I recommend this book for the tale that it tells, not the manner in which it is told. The Oufkir story deserves widespread attention and empathy, it is unfortunate that it falls somewhat short in it's telling here.

I loved this book. I agree that it wasn't the best writing, and it was somewhat confusing at times because the story jumped around abit. But, nonetheless it was an EXCELLENT book. And the details of her life were so graphicly expressed. I read this for a bookclub and I'm glad I had the priviledge witnessing the story of her life.

I highly recommend it.

A girl from a privileged class is adopted - against her will and that of her family - by the royal house and spends years imprisoned along with her natural family after her father tries to kill the royal leader. Her journey through various prison sites is riveting.

The book is another example of how different the rest of the world is from our small Western world. It is important to remember that the accident of birth can place you anywhere.

Oufkir's tale of tragedy and horror takes the reader from privilege to the bottom of despair to escape and emergence into another life and time. A sad tale for sure. Good reading for anyone who is interested in different cultures. Her descriptions of the landscapes and prison environments are excellent.

i wished the book was more detailed and that it would have given an in-depth on everything. i was captivated in oufkir's journey. this was such a sad, yet brilliant story. i would love to see it made into a movie. somehow, i did not feel that the writing was justice to her story....needed more pampering to the information.

This book, a true story written by a now adult woman who was jailed as a young woman, is not recommended. The family seems to accept the politics of their country when it provides them with wealth, comforts, and power. It's difficult to feel sympathy when they are suddenly on the flip side of their politics and jailed-mainly I believe because the story is so poorly written. It never engages you or draws you into the story, so sympathy for the "characters" never develops. Undoubtedly a very powerful story but this book doesn't do it or their cause justice. My 3 star rating is out of respect for the story, the writing would receive 1.

Imagine; at age five having all the luxuries available to a princess and having a king treating you just like a daughter. Malika Oufkir, the adopted daughter of Moroccan King Muhammad V and then King Hassan II, had almost everything she could ask for in her childhood years. Following a political coup, which her father played a role in, Malika and her family were stripped of all luxuries and imprisoned. The childhood portion of the book is a little too in-depth, the appalling imprisonment years were over in a flash, but while the book keep the audiences' attention throughout; this story had the potential of being a whole lot more interesting.
The book is broken down into clearly defined parts-the childhood years, the imprisonment years, and after. The emphasis is on the childhood years; this major portion of the book details most of Malika's moves and thoughts throughout her time at the palace and her rebellious period back at home. Stolen Lives contradicts itself in some instances especially in the childhood years. Repeatedly the author's use the metaphor of the palace being a prison is contradictory to the accounts of a happy Malika having fun with the princess and getting into trouble like any normal child does. The fact of the matter is, is that Malika had a lot of freedom-her punishments for misbehaving were not as severe and she was `allowed' to speak very freely, and at times disrespectful, to the king with minor or no repercussions. There are several more contradictions throughout this book such as loving, in her own way, the king, yet calling him her jailor.
The childhood years section went on and on to the brink of becoming tedious, yet never managed to become boring because of all the escapades, that although were irrelevant to the imprisonment years kept the making the book hard to put down. There were times in the section that I could imagine myself doing some of the very same things-the clubs, etc.-and there were times that I could sympathize with the hardship of separation from your family. Malika does a good job to explain all of her escapades and anxiety that allows a tenuous understanding of what was going on in her mind, and a means for the audience to relate to her childhood and rebellion years.
The imprisonment portion of the book moved by very quickly and lacked an in-depth description that would make it more appalling and more easily understood. The narrative of the different prisons and situations went so fast it was hard to keep up where they were, and who was in charge, and what were the conditions. The way the authors describe the conditions it seems like only a few years have gone by, when is really was twenty years that went by. It is hard to grasp that the little boy is now a man, and that Malika is not a rebellious youth anymore. This part had the potential to be a very strong part detailing the atrocities that occurred during these twenty years, and how people blindly followed the king's instructions. It is amazing that such a powerful tale was not written to its full potential.
The author had plenty of information to work with and yet, the weak part of the book was an area that should have been a very powerful part. Although it is lacking in some parts (like the description of the prison years), overall this story of one family's life in prison is very emotional. It fulfills what the authors wanted to do: evoke a strong emotion about the atrocities that happened to innocent women and children because of something that they had no prior knowledge of and were not involved in. That is what this story is about and it does a very good job at evoking strong emotions that make people realize that there are injustices in this world that can and do happen.

I enjoyed reading the book for the 4th time already. I am amazed by this family's strength. I find it shocking that the many times I was in Morocco during her incarceration, no one ever mentioned her name. A friend who is Moroccan and lives in Rabat told me many ppl were afraid of King Hassan and only pretended to love him. I told him I was glad I lived in a country where we are free to express our opposition to anyone; within reason. I carefully viewed the photos of Ms Oufkir as a child and she bears a very strong resemblance to King Hassan. I am curious if she is actually his biological daughter along with Abdel, the baby in the family. My friend said Malikas mother was having an affair with the king and that is part of the reason General Oufkir wanted him dead. It kind of makes sense, but the general also seemed power hungry.

What no one ever mentions is the fact that the king was a pedophile if he was screwing girls as young as 12, maybe younger. Good heavens! That is horrible, but he was also a modern day slaver and their decendents are still slaves in the palace today, so the legacy of slavery continues.

How could this man have been so cruel, so evil and so vindictive esp toward children? What is not really explained is his hatred toward Malikas mother and why the king blamed her for encouraging her husband to overthrow the king. Was there a love affair between them? Or a sexual relationship that she could not refuse since he was the idol?

I wonder how many illegitimate children this man had? I am sure the concubines and slaves also gave birth to his children. What happened to them?

What will change within the kingdom with the young king? I met a man in Rabat named Imadi who knows Princess Salma. I wonder what kind of influence and impact she will make?

I cannot believe the horror this family has endured, but God, Jesus Christ, the real true and living god has seen them thru, whether they realize it or not.

What a story and what a storyteller.

I will pray for her and her family, but I wonder how many more are out there. Obviously, the king had planned their torment for some time and then he kept f*&^ing with them with lie after lie and game after game. He was the Master of the Game, but evil will not flourish in the long run.

Praise God, the king is dead.

Malika Oufkir's book tells the story of high privilege and bitter starvation.

She was adopted by the Moroccan king and educated as a court princess with all the luxury she could dream off.
She gives us interesting and valuable information about life at the Moroccan court and in the king's harem.
Unfortunately, her father, the second mightiest man in the country, staged a coup to kill the king, most probably to install a military dictatorship and not to put the king's son on the throne, as the author pretends in this book.
When the coup failed, her father was summarily executed and his direct family sent to prison, first in a guarded house and then in isolated cells on a diet of rotten eggs.

Malika Oufkir tells us pregnantly how she and her family could survive in this rather complete isolation: by staying in contact with each other and the outer world (through a hidden radio and more or less human guards), by doing sensible things (educating the younger children, telling stories), but most of all by dreaming of an escape.
The last part of the book reads like a thriller.

This book is a very impressive tale about human survival.

I was a bit confused in parts of the book and sometimes bored. I felt like I really never knew the people in the book, especially Malika, but it was still a very interesting book, just not told very well. The book had such potential. It was a lot or boring descriptions of her encourters with the King and her relatives, but I really did not "feel" her anger, her pain, her happiness. A lot of the time, I was confused! I felt like reading it was chore, but I am glad I read it. I feel a new sense of family and determination in difficult situations (no where near as difficult as Malika's though). I would give the book a five, if it was not soooo poorly written.

1. "Stolen Lives, Twenty Years in a Desert Jail", is a book about Malika Oufkir, daughter of Morocco's once most powerful General (next only to King) and their family. This lady was adopted by Late King Muhammad V and was brought up as king's daughter in along with his biological daughter, Lalla Mina. This was one adoption, which was respected and continued by King Hassan II who succeeded his father to the throne.

2. Her life continued like a fairy tale from her adoption at the age of five till 1972, when her father fell off from king's favour. After a failed attempt on king's life, her father was arrested and executed.

3. Soon, at the age of 19, she along with her family, consisting of her mother and five siblings were arrested and jailed for 15 years out of which 10 years were in near solitary confinement. Their ordeal reduced a bit after Malika and there of her siblings managed to escape the prison by digging a tunnel and succeeded in bringing their existence and the inhumane treatment mated out to them to the notice of the world through one of the French radio channel. This resulted in their continued confinement, not in jail, but under house arrest. It is after 20 years, whole of her youth, that they were freed from confinement and she could leave Morocco in 1996.

4. It is a personal account and as such tends to over-emphasis few things, as it happens in all personal accounts. But the quality of the narrative is sterling, humane aspect of the story is moving, the treatment that was mated out to this family and the resistance they put up are worth reading. All in all one feels sorry for such sheer waste of beautiful youth of so many young children (six to be precise) for no fault of theirs. Well, one can only say that to some extent democracy is better then all these Monarchy.

5. Some of the things worth mentioning are: -

(a) That such thing happened in our lifetime, in civilized and
(b) modern world, makes you feel ashamed.

(b) The horrible treatment that was given to them is repulsive. Which form of justice it is to punish the family members for so-called crimes of the head of the family.

(c) Another important point stands out that if a family sticks together, they can withstand / overcome all odds / trials. That's how they managed to survive and maintain their sanity.

6. This one book (originally published in French as `La Prisonnier' and co-authored by Michele Fitoussi) is worth reading and cherishing as a icon of the triumph of Human mind and soul over strongest adversary.