STOLEN LIVES is a book that reads like an adventurous movie script --- the author is the eldest daughter of a Moroccan general who was adopted by the King at the age of five and brought up as a companion to his own child. She was a harem member with special privileges, the least of which was her desired eligibility for marriage when she came of age. In 1972, however, General Oufkir was arrested for a plot to assassinate the King, and Malika's entire family --- five siblings and her mother --- were then imprisoned in a penal colony. They were there for 15 years, at the end of which they were able to, with their hands only, dig a tunnel out of their cells and escape, only to be captured again five days later. In 1996, Malika was able to leave Morocco and live in exile far away from there, prompting her fascinating book.

It's hard to believe, with all we know about the insanity enacted upon innocent people in many countries around the world throughout history, that this type of harem tale, as shocking and upsetting as it is, is actually true. Oufkir's telling of her family's plight is without hard edges, without melodramatic flair --- instead, she simply allows the facts of their lives to express the dire horror and fear under which the family lived for so long. It is this expressive simplicity and sticking to the facts that makes the story so eminently readable. As haunting as it is, the story manages to play itself out with just the right details, like a perfectly wrought motion picture. Yet, you never forget that this is a true story.

Oufkir's honesty and forthrightness about the strangeness of her young life and the oppression of her later life add up to a survivor's story that everyone will find meritorious, inspiring and fascinating.

   --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

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