A House in the sky

At the age of eighteen, Amanda Lindhout moved from her hardscrabble Alberta, Canada hometown to the big city--Calgary--and worked as a cocktail waitress, saving her tips so she could travel the globe. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a TV reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Mogadishu, Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth"--to report on the fighting there. On her fourth day in the country, she and her male photojournalist companion were abducted. She is kept in chains, nearly starved, and subjected to unthinkable abuse. She survives by imagining herself in a "house in the sky," looking down at the woman shackled below, and finding strength and hope in the power of her own mind. Upon her release, to counter the violence she endured, she founded an organization to help the Somali people rebuild their country through education.