The most incredible stories are written by life.
I cannot review this book as if it was a novel. I wasn't written for my entertainment - it shows us a slice of a harsh reality in an unvarnished mirror.
Most people will be familiar with at least the basics of Natascha Kampusch's story: a
10-year old girl is abducted, dragged from the street into a waiting white van by a stranger. The rest of…mehrThe most incredible stories are written by life.
I cannot review this book as if it was a novel. I wasn't written for my entertainment - it shows us a slice of a harsh reality in an unvarnished mirror.
Most people will be familiar with at least the basics of Natascha Kampusch's story: a 10-year old girl is abducted, dragged from the street into a waiting white van by a stranger. The rest of her childhood and youth is spent as his prisoner, almost his slave. For most of it, she is forced to live in a tiny room, cleverly hidden behind many doors. She has to endure a lot of pain and suffering; the violence spirals out of control. Isolation, humiliation, brutal beatings, starvation, sexual abuse. This would've broken most people; it didn't break this resourceful, brave girl.
It's an incredible experience to read this story from Natascha Kampusch's perspective. You cannot help but feel that an amazingly strong, intelligent and even wise women is sharing her life with us. Some people apparently react with irritation or even hostility to Natascha's refusal to meekly submit to what society expects from a victim. They cannot understand, let alone condone, that she has forgiven her tormentor. They condemn that she dared to find little moments of normality or even happiness.
Who are we - we, who watch from the outside, we, who are no more than voyeurs of her life - to presume to judge the survival strategies of a brave child?
