Rating: 
Summary: Poor writing
Review: As other reviewers have mentioned already, the prose and editing of the book makes it a difficult read. The book had all the ingredients for a splendid read, beautiful heroine as narrator to boot as well, (and a recommendtion from Oprah!).
I came away from the book with the perception that the narrator (malika) was haughty and self-absorbed, not quite typical of your long-suffering prisoner. This however might be the one good point of the author, as she showed the true colors of its characters.
There are big gaps in the story, mainly where there is an opportunity to associate blame on the narrator or her family, Malika only chose to show us the good side of her family and her life, and then the abject torture that they were put through. This of course, is natural human tendency, and perhaps a writer with more knowledge of both sides of the story could have given the readers an interesting spin.
There are several unanswered questions that the reader will have after reading this book, which is annoying, more than an invitation to thoughtful discussion. More importantly, a lot of characters are not followed up on in the book, which would have personally been more intersting to me, like lalla Mina, the title characters "step sister". Still, for those of us who clamour for a glimpse into the veiled worlds on the east, this book gave some good descriptions of what life is like there, from the eyes of a privileged girl who saw both the best and worst that life can offer in Morocco.
Rating: 
Summary: Please
Review: I can see why this book is being peddled to a western audience. We in a democracy are more likely to be outraged at an entire family being held responsible for the actions of one member. In other parts of the world, a family like the Oufkirs who benefited royally from the father's power will of course be brought down with their father. It is not clear what Oufkir's father did, besides the attempt at a coup, but I feel like that information is necessary to understand this story, and Malika does not provide it. Overall, I don't find Oufkir's story terribly credible. There are too many contradictions. For example, in one sentence she says they got to spend times out in a court yard together all day, and in the same paragraph she says family members for years only saw each other by reflection of water in a shared gutter. Elsewhere she claims she and her brother seduced two people on a train to help them in their escape; this after saying her brother had three teeth and a mouth full of abcesses and that she herself was so swollen from malnutrition that she could barely fit through the escape tunnel, and that they were dressed in years-old rags... From Malika's laughable self-aggradizement throughout the book, I wonder if she doesn't suffer from some mental disorder. Malika does acknowleged and understand that she was just as imprisoned in her first 18 years of life as she was in the second half, but notice she only considers the second half that she supposedly spent in prison as "stolen." She doesn't seem to have much of a problem with the ridiculuous level of wealth and privilege she had in the first 18 years in contrast to the poverty in which the majority of her countrymen were living in at the time. I found this book poorly written and an insult to rational minds everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Great Story...but
Review: It was a great story and it really gave insite to life in her country,but the story was often contridicting, her hair is gone and then...its back. The radio was ingenious, but no radio can last for 15 years. It could have been a great story, but unfortunatly it the writing ruined it for me.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Oprah 'Success'
Review: Interesting story but who in the world edited this? The average sentence had 5 words in it and the prose, if that's what you could call this atrocity to the literary world, was suited to a third grade level. The author would also refer to events that hadn't happened in the story yet - apparently assuming that you were already familiar with her tale.This book was painful to read. How do you suggest a book for discussion that has no literary genre, no vocabulary, no plot, etc.? It's easy to understand now why it was the first time I was able to walk into the library and pick a hot 'best seller' right off the shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely superb
Review: Although the writing at times could have been better, the tale that this book tells is so spellbinding that nothing could take away a five star rating. The story itself is an incredible tale that winds its way from a life of incredible privilege to a life of incredible cruelty and deprivation. So many intriguing personal, cultural and humam tableaus were passed on this journey that I was forced over and over again to reexamine my values, my beliefs and myself.
An absolutely fantastic book.
Rating: 
Summary: good book
Review: Here's a true account of a strong woman with faith in the future and determination to live her life. This is also about how thankful all of us who live in countries that allow us freedom should be. A book that should be read.
Rating:
Summary: The realistic autobiography of Oufkir's life
Review: Oufkir was the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco's closest aide: she was adopted by him and raised to be a companion to his daughter. She lived a life of luxury, but when her father attempted to assassinate the King, she and her siblings and mother were immediately imprisoned in a penal colony - for twenty years of isolation and pain until their escape. Edita Brychta's voice captures the realistic autobiography of Oufkir's life. High drama, covered by a sense of reality.
Rating:
Summary: Injustice in Morroco
Review: Oprah's selection of STOLEN LIVES allowed great injustices to be exposed. Malika Oufkir, once an adopted child of the King of Morroco, found herself thrown in prison because of political acts she had nothing to do with. She describes the horrors she was forced to endure. Fortunately, she found freedom and the courage to tell this story.
Rating: 
Summary: Stolen Lives. Eyewitness account.
Review: "Stolen Lives". A sad and painful case of yet another flagrant miscarriage of justice! No one deserves to go through what Malika Oufkir and her family have endured. No one!
Oufkir Dynasty touched so many Moroccan lives in so many painful ways, dating back to the days of the French occupation. During the so-called dark years, my people's lives were wiped out by the thousands in Morocco. Courtesy of the infernal machinery engineered and sat in motion by Mohamed Oufkir! The General (as his father before him) provided all the lead that's needed to engrave the names of friends, family, and some of our brightest fellow countrymen in the yet unwritten Moroccan history books..
Not even a footnote about it in your book Malika! Thanks anyway for sharing you misery with all of us since privilege and fame are so hard to share. Even for a good Christian.
Indeed Malika missed a great opportunity for the story of the millennium that would have rivaled "Gone with the Wind"
Hollywood? Malika left out all the juicy staff: Violence, killings, betrayals, rackets, sex, unthinkable orgies, power.. The WHOLE TRUTH. Hollywood would have loved it. Dommage!
Rating:
Summary: A POORLY WRIITEN AND POORLY EDITED TRAVESTY
Review: This is a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime comitted by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contraditions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader. The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to ungulf his family. After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years. As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money. After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised. Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape which brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a deperate break for freedom. The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events which led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents. Malika comes across as a somewhat self absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations. Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.
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