Hostage [Hardcover]

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How does one survive when all hope is lost?

In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe Andr? was kidnapped by armed men and taken away to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months, Andr? was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Jerusalem, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles) recounts Andr?s harrowing experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one mans determination in the face of a hopeless situation.

Marking a departure from the authors celebrated first-person travelogues, Delisle tells the story through the perspective of the titular captive, who strives to keep his mind alert as desperation starts to set in. Working in a pared down style with muted color washes, Delisle conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement, compelling us to ask ourselves some difficult questions regarding the repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers and what it really means to be free. Thoughtful, intense, and moving, Hostage takes a profound look at what drives our will to survive in the darkest of moments. Hostage shows what it's like to be held captive ... Delisle brings readers into the room with the hostage and, more importantly, into his state of mind. The Atlantic

[Hostage is] an indelible portrait of an ordinary person facing a frightening ordeal. Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

The location captured [in Hostage] is less Andre's grim littlelóH