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The Hostage's Daughter
The Hostage's Daughter: A Story of Family, Madness, and the Middle East | Sulome Anderson
2 posts | 1 read | 8 to read
In this gripping blend of reportage, memoir, and analysis, a journalist and daughter of one of the worlds most famous hostages, Terry Anderson, takes an intimate look at her fathers captivity during the Lebanese Hostage Crisis and the ensuing political firestorm on both her family and the United Statesas well as the far-reaching implications of those events on Middle Eastern politics today. In 1991, seven-year-old Sulome Anderson met her father, Terry, for the first time. While working as the Middle East bureau chief for the Associated Press covering the long and bloody civil war in Lebanon, Terry had been kidnapped in Beirut and held for more than six years by a Shiite Muslim militia associated by most with the Hezbollah movement. As the nation celebrated, the media captured a smiling Anderson family joyously reunited. But the truth was far darker. Plagued by PTSD, Terry was a moody, aloof, and distant figure to the young daughter who had long dreamed of his returnand while she smiled for the cameras all the same, she absorbed his trauma as her own. Years later, after long battles with drug abuse and mental illness, Sulome would travel to the Middle East as a reporter, seeking to understand her father, the men who had kidnapped him, and ultimately, herself. What she discovered was shockingnot just about Terry, but about the international political machinations that occurred during the years of his captivity. The Hostages Daughter is an intimate look at the effect of the Lebanese Hostage Crisis on Andersons family, the United States, and the Middle East today. Sulome tells moving stories from her experiences as a reporter in the region and challenges our understanding of global politics, the forces that spawn terrorism and especially Lebanon, the beautiful, devastated, and vitally important country she came to love. Powerful and eye-opening The Hostages Daughter is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations, this violent, haunted region, and America's role in its fate.
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Sulome Anderson‘s father Terry was kidnapped and held hostage for the first 7 years of her life. Here, she delves into her own research about his kidnap and captivity and explores the reverberations of his return across her family. This includes detailing her own mental illness. It‘s imperfect but quite an interesting book.

Cinfhen I remember the name Terry Anderson ~ he was kidnapped in Beruit?? 5y
Megabooks @Cinfhen I thought he was one of the Iran hostages?? 5y
Cinfhen I can‘t remember @Megabooks / but I definitely remember his name and release 5y
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Cinfhen I just read the book blurb.... he was kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah 🤓 5y
Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen @Megabooks He‘s American, but Sulome‘s mother is Lebanese. He was a reporter in Beirut when he was taken. Interestingly, the author is much harsher in her treatment of the Israeli government than the Lebanese. She‘s spent a fair amount of time in Beirut as an adult. 5y
Cinfhen Unfortunately that doesn‘t surprise me 😬Hezbollah seems to get a free pass card in most of the Middle East 🙄 5y
Megabooks @Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen looking at my friends/classmates who were poli sci majors around 9/11 (myself included) either you doubled down and got super interested and super partisan or like me, you did something completely different. Honestly, sometimes it‘s good to just talk about the strange things Labs seem to eat. I vote, I donate to politicians I support, I read the news a few times a week, but generally I take a pass. 👇🏻 5y
Megabooks @Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen which feels weird because there are times in my life where I would have read this book and had strong feelings about the viewpoints in it. Anyway, probably more than you wanted to know! 5y
Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen Wow, that seems nuts to me. I really only know Middle East politics in broad strokes, so I find books like this interesting, as they delve into stuff I really don‘t know. Some of what she said makes sense to me, but she also seemed to want to push an unverified conspiracy theory, so I took it all with a grain of salt. 5y
Hooked_on_books @Megabooks I‘ve been very engaged in US politics lately, but I sometimes wonder to what end. Would it be healthier to just unplug? Or is civic engagement vital to prevent the country from going (further) off the rails? I just don‘t know anymore. 5y
Megabooks @Hooked_on_books I wonder the same thing. I vote and donate, but I just can‘t do the 24 hour news cycle. Sometimes I feel like I should read more news, but it‘s become even murkier about who to trust to even get your news from! 5y
Cinfhen Politics both here ( Israel) and there (US) have left me exhausted. It‘s relentless and unending and the amount of hate from all sides Blue/Red Left/Right is making me sick @Hooked_on_books @Megabooks I‘m starting to feel like I went down some strange rabbit hole. Nothing is what it seems and reason doesn‘t seem to exist. 5y
Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen I totally agree. And sadly I don‘t see an end to it. I‘m not sure where we‘re headed. It‘s been nice being in Hawaii—it feels a little removed from all the stupidity. 5y
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Join us in the Rare Book Room as Sulome tells the story of her travels, her father, and how this process of discovery has changed her. She will be interviewed by Paul Wood, BBC foreign correspondent most recently based in Beirut covering Syria.

Anderson will be at Strand Book Store on January 9 to share insights on her new book. Visit our website for more details! http://www.strandbooks.com/event/sulome-anderson

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