Best Selling Books by Malika Oufkir

A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller--the story of Malika Oufkir''s turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco''s closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege. Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996. A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman''s journey to freedom.

Stolen Lives, Malika Oufkir''s intensely moving account of her twenty years imprisoned in a desert jail in Morocco, was a surprise international best seller and the second non-fiction title ever selected for Oprah''s Book Club. In her highly anticipated follow-up, Malika reflects on the life she lived before and during incarceration and how dramatically the world had changed when she emerged. Malika Oufkir was born into extreme privilege as the daughter of the king of Morocco''s closest aide, and she grew up in the palace as companion to the Moroccan princess. But in 1972, her life of luxury came to a crashing halt.Her father was executed for attempting to assassinate the king, and she and her family were locked away for two decades. After a remarkable escape, Malika and her family returned to the world theyd left behind, only to find it transformed. Living for the first time as an adult, Malika writes candidly about adjusting to the world we take for granted, from negotiating ATMs to the excesses of shopping malls, to falling in love and sex. In Stolen Lives, Malika mourned the children she was not having as she wasted away in prison. When she is finally free, motherhood becomes crucial to Malika''s ability to fully live her life: she adopts first her niece, then a baby boy from Morocco. Full of insight and piercing observations, as well as humor, Freedom is as masterful and thoughtprovoking as the original.

Malika Oufkir has been a prisoner for virtually her whole life. Born into a proud Berber family in 1953, the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco''s closest aide, Malika was adopted by Mohammed V as a royal ward and brought to live in the palace at Rabat to be a companion to his favourite little daughter. There she grew up locked away among the royal wives and concubines of the King''s harem. After the old king died his successor Hassan II took over the role of her affectionate adoptive father. By the time she was allowed to leave the palace at the age of sixteen, she was one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, and tasted a couple of years of heady freedom amongst the international jetset. But in 1972, when Malika was eighteen, her father, General Oufkir, was arrested after an attempt to assassinate the king, and summarily executed. Malika, her beautiful mother and her five brothers and sisters - the youngest of whom was barely three years old - were thrown into a remote desert jail by the man Malika had only known as a loving surrogate father. The family was kept locked away without any communication with the outside world in increasingly barbaric and inhumane conditions, fighting a daily battle against malnutrition, disease, loneliness and despair. Then, after fifteen years of imprisonment, the last ten years of which they were locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, the public hue and cry created by their escape ensured that they were then submitted to house arrest rather than prison - but it was only in 1996, after her younger sister managed to flee the country, that Malika, robbed of the best years of her life, was allowed to leave Morocco and start a new life in France.

Toute sa vie, Malika Oufkir a été une prisonnière. C''est à l''âge de cinq ans que la fille aînée du général Oufkir est adoptée par Mohammed V et élevée dans le Palais du Roi, à Rabat, dont elle ne sort que rarement. Défilent devant les yeux d''une princesse espiègle et effrayée les courtisanes du Harem, les esclaves du Feu, les gouvernantes à l''accent allemand. A sa sortie du palais, la fière descendante des Berbères compte parmi les héritières les plus courtisées du Royaume. La tentative de coup d''Etat du 16 août 1972 contre Hassan II en décide autrement. Ce sera la mort pour le général Oufkir, et la prison pour sa femme Fatéma, et ses six enfants dont le plus jeune n''a pas trois ans ! Des murailles du désert aux cellules envahies par les scorpions, Malika élève ses frères et sœurs et refuse qu''on les laisse mourir. Ils resteront enfermés vingt ans dans des conditions inhumaines. Schéhérazade moderne, Malika n''a rien oublié : l''angoisse des nuits solitaires, la faim et la soif, les frustrations d''une femme privée d''amour, mais aussi l''humour d''une famille à qui l''on veut infliger le pire des châtiments, l''oubli. Elle évoque aussi cette incroyable évasion à mains nues et l''errance clandestine de Casablanca à Tanger, de Tanger à Paris. Aujourd''hui, dans une fresque qui se lit comme un conte des Mille et Une Nuits, Malika la prisonnière devient enfin une femme libre. C''est un témoignage bouleversant qu''elle a confié à Michèle Fitoussi.

Qui ne se souvient du destin incroyable de Malika Oufkir ? Dans La Prisonnière, écrit avec Michèle Fitoussi, Malika racontait le sort d''une enfant élevée comme une princesse à la cour d''Hassan II. A la suite d''un coup d''Etat en 1972, où son père biologique, le général Oufkir, tenta de renverser son père adoptif, le roi du Maroc, on l''emprisonna avec toute sa famille, mère, frères, soeurs, pendant près de vingt ans. Malika a survécu, mais à quel prix ? Comment se promener dans les rues de Paris, de Marrakech, de Miami ou de New York, quand on a encore la peur au ventre ? Que peut-elle dire de son passé mutilé à Nawal et à Adam, ses enfants adoptifs ? L''Etrangère est le récit vrai d''une Martienne revenue sur terre. Malika Oufkir a beaucoup d''humour, le sens de l''observation, la rage au cœur, et ce " grain de folie " qui lui donne définitivement une place à part.

Als Kind wird Malika vom marokkanischen König als Spielgefährtin für seine Tochter adoptiert. Ein Leben im goldenen Käfig folgt. Erst mit 16 darf sie zu ihren leiblichen Eltern zurück - und das Glück währt nur kurz: Nach einem Putschversuch wirk Malikas Vater erschossen, seine Frau und die sechs Kinder verhaftet. 20 Jahre lang kämpft die Familie ums Überleben: in dunklen Kellern, geplagt von Hunger und Einsamkeit. Nur Malikas unglaublicher Lebenswille bewahrt die Familie davor, aufzugeben.

Verslag van het leven van de auteur (1953) en haar familie, die, na bij koning Hassan II van Marokko in ongenade gevallen te zijn, twintig jaar in gevangenschap doorbrengen.

Story of a woman who spent twenty years in a desert jail.