First published 2010
In 2002, Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt ventures into a military zone during her campaign. FARC guerrillas capture her and drag her into the jungle depths. For six and a half years, she endures captivity under the brutal terrorist organization. Chained by the neck to trees, she loses basic freedoms: movement, speech, eating, even bodily functions. The guerrillas control every aspect of her existence. Yet through this ordeal, Betancourt discovers an unshakeable truth. Her captors can strip away physical liberty, but they cannot touch her deepest freedom: choosing who she becomes. This memoir chronicles her years in the Colombian jungle, revealing how human dignity survives even in the darkest circumstances. Betancourt transforms her suffering into a meditation on what makes us human.
Genres: abuse, political-science, crime, autobiography, memoir, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: captivity, resilience, survival
Setting: Colombia, The Colombian Jungle
Period: 2002
544 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: abuse, violence