It is every person's--particularly every parent's--worst nightmare. For a loved one to walk out through the front door and never to return is one of the most heartbreaking, terrifying, and harrowing experiences someone can go through. Not to know the fate of a person close to you is simply agonizing--did they choose to disappear, were they involved in an accident, or did something even worse befall them? Every day, staggering numbers of people go missing. Most return within 72 hours but there many are never seen again. Some are students who take off to distant countries without telling their parents and then disappear; some are husbands who have left to come to terms with their own problems; some are runaways, others missing parents. In this compelling book, journalist Rose Rouse is granted exclusive access to the mothers, brothers, sons, wives, sisters, and daughters of those who have vanished without trace. Rouse shares in the turmoil that they have endured in their quest to be reunited with those who have disappeared from their lives. These are amazing stories of people who have moved heaven and earth to find their loved ones.

In April 1997-98 Camilla Carr and Jon James set off as volunteers in a GBP500 Lada stacked high with toys, games, footballs, paints and a parachute. Their destination was Chechnya and their aim was to work with children who had been traumatised by war. After working for two months setting up and teaching in a rehabilitation centre and watching the children begin to smile and play again, they were kidnapped by Chechen guerrillas. There followed fourteen months of incarceration in homes that varied from a concrete box with no natural light or fresh air, to a pink trompe la oeil bedroom via a sauna and various cellars. They experienced everything from rape and mental torture to moments of compassion and kindness. They survived by using tools such as tai chi, yoga, meditation and humour; and through creating a dialogue with their captors, looking beneath their masks of fear and anger to reach the small flame of love and laughter unquenched by the demonising nature of war.

How can you forget your past when it keeps coming back to haunt you? Judy Westwater, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Street Kid, was determined to turn her back on her cruel and violent childhood. She didn't stand a chance. All too soon hope turned to fear and she knew she'd have to run again. Judy was only 11 years old when she was forced to live on the streets. Beaten, half-starved and horrifically abused, she finally escaped to a life in the circus and fell in love with one of the circus hands. But the charming man who seemed so perfect had a dark and sinister side. If she wanted to survive she had to get away. Judy fled to South Africa, taking with her her two young children. But the streets of South Africa were just as cruel. One day a man took her five-year-old daughter and her violent past was replayed in front of her eyes. Judy's incredible story of courage and determination will inspire as it will amaze.

Daoud Hari lost a way of life in Darfur. But amidst the carnage and turmoil he found a new calling... As a Zaghawa tribesman in the Darfur region of Sudan, Daoud Hari grew up racing camels across the desert, attending colourful weddings and, when his work was done, playing games under the moonlight. But in 2003 helicopter gunships swooped down on Darfur's villages and shattered that way of life for ever. Sudanese government-backed militias came to murder, rape and burn. To drive the tribesmen from their lands. When Hari's village was attacked and destroyed, his family was decimated. He escaped and roamed the battlefield deserts, helping the weak and vulnerable find food, water and safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari gave his services as a translator and guide. To do so was to risk his life, for the Sudanese government had outlawed journalists, punishing aid to 'foreign spies' with death. Yet Hari did so time and again. Until eventually, his luck ran out... The Translator is a harrowing tale of selfless courage in terrifying conditions.

This is the incredible true story of Ferzanna Riley, a Pakistani Muslim who could not be broken, despite an abusive family and their brutal efforts to enslave her. Her violent childhood, during which she was beaten on an almost daily basis, transformed her into a desperate and suicidal teenager, and led her to question the faith and culture she had been born into. After starting a new life in London, a shocking turn of events led Ferzanna and her younger sister to be tricked by their family into going into Pakistan, where they were held captive. Inspiring and moving, this astonishing story paints a picture of an amazing woman who broke the cycle of abuse and survived against all the odds.

Book Description

Susan Kennedy had a dream as a little girl. She wanted to become a teacher. Sadly, because of a combination of nurture and nature, that dream was never to be. This heartrending and captivating story, tells of one woman's struggle through life, while suffering from a debilitating mental illness. It is a story of determination, courage, tenacity and humour. This moving, sometimes sad, often hilarious, journey through Susan's life will leave you enthralled. It is a story of hope and optimism, in a world that is far from perfect. From being abused on the counter of the benefit office, to life in a convent with some amorous nuns, to having a knife at her throat in a mental hospital, there is one thing you can say about Sue Kennedy's life; it is far from mundane.

Considered the Mt. Everest of diving, the Andrea Doria is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge. Over the years, a small but fanatical group of extreme scuba divers have investigated the Andrea Doria, pushing themselves to the very limits of human endurance to explore her -- and not all have returned. Diver Kevin McMurray takes you inside this elite club with a hard, honest look at those who go deeper, farther, and closer to the edge than others would ever dream.

Deep Descent is the riveting true story of the human spirit overcoming human frailty and of fearsome, mortal risks traded for a hard-core adrenaline rush. Chronicling these adventures in his page-turning narrative and in dozens of dramatic photos, McMurray draws us deeper into the cold heart of the unforgiving sea, giving us a powerful vision of a place to which few will ever have the skills -- or the courage -- to go.

Bless me Father is the true story of an incredible South African Life. Born into a violent and brocken family, and growing up in a variety of institutions, Cape Town based poet and writer Mario d' Offizi tells his remarkable, often shocking and ultimately inspiring life adventure-one that spans several decades in a country undergoing radical change. From his tough days at Boys Town to wild years in the advertising world, a stint in the restaurant business and a sharp edged journalistic adventure in the DRC, d'Offizi tells his critically acclaimed story with the unfailing sensitivity and warmth of a true poet.

"The tale of Carl Wake and the hurricane that was waiting for him goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea stories: they are not about man against the sea, but man against himself. John Kretschmer's book is as perfectly shaped and flawlessly written as such a story can be. In addition to being the best depiction I have ever read of what it is like to be inside a hurricane at sea, At the Mercy of the Sea is as moving a story of a man's failure and redemption as can be found anywhere in the literature of the sea. This book is surely destined to become a classic."--Peter Nichols, author of "Sea Change" and "A Voyage for Madmen"

"John Kretschmer has transformed this story of three men on a collision course with a hurricane into a modern seafaring classic."--Peter Nielsen, editor of "SAIL" magazine

"John Kretschmer's account of three fellow captains whose lives converge in one of history's most erratic hurricanes builds like the storm itself. Detail after detail reveals the sailors' personal histories, their foibles, their goals, and finally their tragic miscalculations. With expert analysis and taut writing, he draws readers into that mad storm. You can't turn away. You keep reading until it breaks your heart."--Fred Grimm, columnist for the "Miami Herald"

"John Kretschmer is a first-class seaman who is also a fine writer. Once begun, his vivid and powerful narrative is impossible to put down."--Derek Lundy, author of "Godforsaken Sea" and "The Way of a Ship"

""At the Mercy of the Sea" kept me plunging ahead to the tragic end and left me feeling humbled and lucky to be alive. I felt I knew Carl Wake, because John Kretschmer found in him an archetype--an aging sailor with an age-old dream."--Jim Carrier, transatlantic sailor and author of "The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome"

"Gathering his tools as a loyal friend, a master mariner, and a natural storyteller, John Kretschmer has crafted an unforgettable tale of high-seas adventure, salvation, and loss. A remarkable book, impossible to put down."--Herb McCormick, sailing journalist

John Kretschmer, a professional sailor and writer, has logged more than 200,000 offshore sailing miles, including fifteen transatlantic and two transpacific passages. He is a longtime contributing editor to "Sailing" magazine and a sailing/travel columnist for the "Miami Herald". John lives aboard a 47-foot cutter in Florida. He and his student Carl Wake, the subject of this book, were close friends.

This is a true story about real people set in the 1960-70's, Alan Stuart Hutcheson, a millionaire before forty had everything; a successful business, an exciting social life; a top model wife amongst a litter of lovers and he lost it all in one calamitous moment.
After Military and Merchant Navy service, he became a champion, well-known top racing driver. Feeling a debt to society, he became a probation officer and learned a lot about police corruption, violence, and falsified evidence.
One evening he was driving through West End London when an accident occurred at the mouth of Hyde Park underpass. One of the girls involved died a week later as a result of shocking medical negligence. Alan was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and given a two year prison sentence. During his first night he attempted suicide but with intensive medical care he survived.
Constantly victimized by the authorities and kept on hard drugs, his time served was mentally and physically tortuous and he not only lost his wife but his thriving business too. Sometime after his release he was accused of murdering his ex-Managing Director and faced a prison sentence; by this time the police were hot on his tail and further falsified evidence was made against him, placing him in another prison sentence.
Through higher level police contacts, he managed to get and early appeal and due to a piece of excellent fortune, he once again became a free man. However, after this Alan felt it safer to live in Spain.
This book is imbued with humour and drama and includes people such as Oliver Reed, Peter Sellers, Stirling Moss, Barry Sheene, Prince of Hanover, Jilly Johnson, Mai Britt and many otherfamous and infamous people making this a compelling memoir well worth reading.

Jimmy Holland was born into a family suffering at the hands of their drunk and abusive father. At the age of just two weeks, he was placed into care. The beginning of a life lived in a constantly changing environment of homes, authorities and institutions began. Let down and frequently abused, it wasn't long before Jimmy strayed onto the wrong side of the tracks. Before long, the mould for a problem child was set. He quickly turned from substance abuse to drug use and, in turn, to crime - his only means of an escape. An inevitable lifetime of crime faced him and he soon became associated with the ringleaders of an infamous gang responsible for prison riots and hostage taking. A heartfelt, shocking and despairing insight into life as a state-raised boy, "Lost in Care" is the heart-rending tale of a man who has lost his childhood and also lost his way.

The million-rand teaspoon is a true story, told by several narrators, of a young man's descent into drug addiction, a serious overdose that left him blind and brain-damaged, and his struggle to recover over the next nine years. Written entirely in the first person, Paul Bateman's story is narrated by him in some chapters, and, in others, by various members of his family, his ex-girlfriend, and a woman who was involved in his protracted but only ever partial recovery. The title is divided into two parts - the first covering Paul's years of addiction and the second detailing his struggle to regain some kind of life up until the present. The title refers to Paul's father's recollection of finding only a teaspoon in his son's otherwise denuded flat (Paul had sold everything else, but kept the teaspoon to cook up drugs). The spoon came to symbolise for him the years of struggling with Paul's addiction, and the financial cost of that struggle.

This distinctive volume contains twenty first-person narrative essays from Holocaust survivors who were children at the time of the atrocity. As children aged two to sixteen, these authors had different experiences than their adult counterparts and also had different outlooks in understanding the events that they survived. While most Holocaust memoirs focus on one individual or one country, ""And Life Is Changed Forever"" offers a varied collection of compelling reflections. The survivors come from Germany, Poland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and Czechoslovakia. All of the contributors escaped death, but they did so in myriad ways. Some children posed as Gentiles or were hidden by sympathizers, some went to concentration camps and survived slave labor, some escaped on the Kindertransports, and some were sent to endure hardships in a ""safe"" location such as Siberia or unoccupied France. While each essay is intensely personal, all speak to the universal horrors and the triumphs of all children who have survived persecution. ""And Life Is Changed Forever"" also focuses on what these children became - teachers, engineers, physicians, entrepreneurs, librarians, parents, and grandparents - and explores the impact of the Holocaust on their later lives.

This classic sea story recounts Frank Dye's intrepid voyages in his open 16ft Wayfarer dinghy to Iceland and Norway, which must rank among the most hazardous sea adventures of our time. Encountering the whole gamut of weather, such is Frank Dye's seamanship that he and his crew survived gales up to Force 9, capsizing and a broken mast, finally arriving safely to a Scandinavian welcome. It is a hair raising unforgettable narrative in which we glimpse Frank's gifted boat-handling skills and his instinct for survival. 'Without doubt Frank Dye is one of this century's greatest small boat seamen.' Yachting Monthly 'Any reader who has been far offshore in bad weather will marvel at the sheer temerity of a man who would attempt Iceland and Norway in such a craft.' Yachting Monthly 'Frank and Margaret Dye have become dinghy sailing legends in their own time.' Yachts & Yachting

Discover a powerful collection of the hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and mortal struggles of enslaved people seeking freedom: These are the true stories of the Underground Railroad.

A secret network of safe houses, committees and guides that stretched well below the Mason-Dixon Line into the brutal slave states of the American South, the Underground Railroad remains one of the most impressive and well-organised resistance movements in modern history. It facilitated the escape of over 30,000 slave 'passengers' through America and into Canada during its peak years of 1850-60, and, in total, an estimated 100,000 slaves found their freedom through the network.

Abridged from William Still's The Underground Railroad Records - an epic historical document that chronicles the first-hand stories of American slaves who escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad - Passengers tells of the secret methods, risks and covert sacrifices that were made to liberate so many from slavery. From tales of men murdered in cold blood for their part in helping assist runaways and terrifyingly tense descriptions of stowaways and dramatic escape plans, to stories of families reunited and the moments of absurdity that the Underground Railroad forced its 'passengers' to sometimes endure, Still's narratives testify to the humanity of this vast enterprise.

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel battered southern Ontario, leaving in its wake a terrible toll: thousands homeless, million in property damage, and, worst of all, 81 people dead. Hazel destroyed bridges, submerged towns, and drowned unsuspecting Ontarians in their homes and cars. Raymore Drive in Weston was decimated when the Humber River swelled by eight feet, taking the lives of 32 residents in only one hour. In Etobicoke, five volunteer firemen drowned while trying to reach marooned motorists. Towns and villages from Toronto north to Timmins felt Hazel's fury.

After the storm, people walked the now-surreal streets of their towns: cars upside-down and wrapped in power lines, iceboxes and dead cows hanging from trees, houses flattened, toys and furniture floating down the street.

On the 50th anniversary of the storm, Jim Gifford has captured that fatal night in the voices of those who survived it, from residents who lived along the surging Humber River to a policeman who rescued families from their rooftops to firemen and Boy Scouts who searched for victims along the riverbanks. Including more than 100 never-before-published photographs, Hurricane Hazel: Canada's Storm of the Century documents one of the worst natural disasters in Canadian history.

The extraordinary wreck of a majestic ship, a mysteriously missing crew, a message in a bottle, the lost captain's determined daughter - these are all elements of a great sea yarn, and one that happens to be true. Bland Simpson weaves them together in this compelling nonfiction novel, his reconstruction of a ghost ship's final voyage in 1921 and its baffling aftermath. To this day, the fate of the Carroll A. Deering has remained one of the great mysteries of maritime history. Simpson's haunting chronicle keeps the story alive, an apt memorial to the ghost ship and its lost crew.

In the autumn of 1993, American special forces were dispatched to the famine-stricken land of Somalia. Their intervention in this war-torn country was the most dramatic US military action since Vietnam. A routine mission went horribly wrong when Michael Durant's Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Mogadishu and he was quickly surrounded by Somali troops and taken captive. The brutal torture he underwent was made all too clear to the world when his coerced statements were broadcast on live television and his battered face appeared on the cover of magazines around the globe. Michael Durant's ordeal was first described in Mark Bowden's international bestseller Black Hawk Down and the critically acclaimed film of the same name. This, his first-person gripping account tells of bravery under fire, torture, imprisonment, and the terrifying day by day reality for a soldier, unarmed and helpless in enemy hands, fighting to survive.

Fran Stiff is a silicone gel survivor. Implanted with silicone gel-filled breast implants in November 1981 she was told it was a 'one off' and that the implants would last a lifetime. It was the beginning of a 22-year nightmare. Intended to enhance her beauty, the procedure had the opposite result. By 1983 her right breast had become hard and deformed. The implant had ruptured and loose silicone gel had been broadcast into her breast and other bodily tissues. This was surgically removed and the implant replaced. By May 1989 her right breast had re-hardened, but this time she was unable to find a plastic surgeon willing to deal with it. They were only prepared to explant the implants, because they said the hardening would only reoccur. This would have left her with a grossly deformed chest and no breasts. She refused, deciding it was preferable to live with the deformity. She found herself progressively afflicted with major allergies and rheumatism. It was only in 1997 – 16 years after the first implantations – that she found a plastic surgeon who was prepared to tackle her problems. After a string of operations to remove the remnants of silicone gel that remained in her body and the replacement of both her implants with saline-filled ones, Fran is at last at the stage she had thought she had reached in 1981. Even her silicone gel-inspired allergies and rheumatism has begun to diminish. While silicone gel implants have been banned in the USA since 1992, their virtually unregulated use has continued in the European Union, South Africa and elsewhere. Effectively, women there have been used as lab rats by manufacturers of silicone gel breast implants to gather data for the FDA so that their products might be allowed back on the lucrative US market.

Jacky was twenty-three when she arrived in Egypt for a holiday with her boyfriend, Dave. Little did she know that an innocent holiday would result in a horror beyond her imagination. Separated from Dave in a bustling street, Jacky fell and twisted her ankle, only to be swept up by a handsome, chivalrous Egyptian called Omar. It was love at first sight. Jacky spent those ten days living with the family - sharing a bed with Omar's sister - irresistibly attracted to Omar. Swept away by her infatuation she married him and converted to Islam before returning to England to her parents. Returning to Cairo against her parents' advice but full of hopes and plans, Jacky's dream turned into a nightmare. As a blue-eyed blonde she was never going to fit in with life in a poor suburb where the women walked at all times with their heads bowed. During the next eight years she suffered non-stop physical and emotional abuse. She had to escape with her two little girls but how? This tense story never quite ends. Even now, Jacky is living in the shadow of a death threat. A fatwa is issued legitimately under Islamic law to a Muslim woman who leaves her husband. Jacky to protect herself and her daughters minute by minute, day by day, never quite sure what may be around the corner...

Stories of Sailors in the Clutch of the SeaEdited by Tom Lochhaas Treacherous Waters is a collection of riveting, real life stories of adventure, loss, and survival at sea.

Garnered from among the best writing about sailing and the sea from the past 40 years, it transports readers to remote polar waters, lee shores, forbidding capes, and into the hearts of tempests. Here is triumph, disaster, love, courage, guilt, rescue, and death as captured by Webb Chiles (The Open Boat), Rob Mundle (Fatal Storm), Jim Carrier (The Ship and the Storm), Gordon Chaplin (Dark Wind), Tami Oldham Ashcroft (Red Sky in Mourning), and 15 others.

A breathtaking account of the world's most gruelling yacht race. The world's greatest round-the-world yacht race is the Volvo Ocean Race. The men and women who compete have an insatiable appetite for tough competition, danger and the challenge of life-threatening experiences. It is a competition in which they must cover more than 32,000 miles (52,600 km) in nine months and conquer the world's oceans. It's non-stop racing. To win the battle they must overcome the elements - from the mind-bending frustration and oppressive heat of tropical calms, to the icy blasts that drive through the minefield of icebergs deep in the Southern Ocean. This is a story about human endeavour and testing the limits of physical and mental endurance. It's also the story of team cohesion and racing to the max as we delve inside the struggles and triumphs of one particular team, Team News Corp, as they battle to become the world's best ocean warriors.

Nora Strejilevich was a young woman when her brother and other family members and friends disappeared at the hands of the military junta that held power in Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Ostensibly part of a systematic campaign to eliminate left-wing terrorism, the violence perpetrated by the junta far exceeded anything the leftists ever dreamed of, enveloping not only the violent left but other dissidents and innocent civilians as well, and particularly targeting the Jewish population. A "desaparecida" herself, Strejilevich survived kidnapping and torture to speak of her experience with a dignified voice and a clear-eyed realism that extends from one end of the political spectrum to the other.

In the first English translation of her elegant fictional memoir "Una sola muerte numerosa," Strejilevich combines autobiography, documentary journalism, fiction, magical realism, and poetry to express the "choir of voices" of the more than 30,000 souls who were imprisoned and abused. She engages the reader in the history of a bloody military coup and state-sanctioned anti-Semitism, exploring themes of exile, identity, and violence. Above all, "A Single, Numberless Death" is Nora Strejilevich's gripping story of survival.

When the fishing vessel La Conte sinks suddenly at night in one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds and record ninety-foot seas during a savage storm in January 1998, her five crewmen are left to drift without a life raft in the freezing Alaskan waters and survive as best they can.

One hundred fifty miles away, in Sitka, Alaska, an H-60 Jayhawk helicopter lifts off from America's most remote Coast Guard base in the hopes of tracking down an anonymous Mayday signal. A fisherman's worst nightmare has become a Coast Guard crew's desperate mission. As the crew of the La Conte begin to die one by one, those sworn to watch over them risk everything to pull off the rescue of the century.

Spike Walker's memoir of his years as a deckhand in Alaska, Working on the Edge, was hailed by James A. Michner as "masterful . . . will become the definitive account of this perilous trade, an addition to the literature of the sea." In Coming Back Alive, Walker has crafted his most devastating book to date. Meticulously researched through hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the survivors, this is the true account of the La Conte's final voyage and the relationship between Alaskan fishermen and the search and rescue crews who risk their lives to save them.