Rating: 
Summary: Good story but....
Review: It's a great story to write a book about, but the rhythm of the sentenses and structure are not smooth.
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Summary: I Can't Get this Family Out of My Mind
Review: Yes, it could have been written, and yes, she lived a life of privledge in her formative years, but the fact remains this was NOT of her choosing. To live through this incredible ordeal and survive it is awe inspiring. It is so hard to imagine these things happening in our lifetime; but they do. The fact that Malika Oufkir had the courage and insight to write about what she and her family endured pays homage to the human spirit. I think about this family all the time and wish them peace. The book moves slowly in the beginning, but is a real page-turner after the story gets started. I highly recommend this book to those who love stories of the strength of the human spirit. God bless the family!!
Rating:
Summary: Remarkably poignant.
Review: Stolen Lives is a masterpiece of a tragic variety. It highlights the fall and rebirth of a powerful Moroccan family under the dictator King Hassan II. This well-executed voyage though lives tragically stolen from innocent people is a harrowing dose of reality. This work showcases the feeling of imprisonment in a way that I have never experienced before. This book disturbingly shows the atrocity of living under a dictator and suffering his selfish wrath. This family, devastatingly has everything torn from them, for the sins of their patriarch. However, they manage to retain strength and courage as a family. It is beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. The strength of family and the will to be free are poignant in this remarkable read. This book is especially wonderful for younger readers who have not experienced any semblance of true tragedy in their lives. It gives a look into the real and unsheltered world that others have survived.
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Summary: A Sad 20 Years
Review: This book really makes you realize how lucky we are to have our freedom. It starts out with Malika as a small chid who is adopted away from her parents by the king of Morrocco to be a playmate for his daughter. She lives the life of a princess and has everything she could ever want. Her father is accused of trying to kill the king and he is killed himself. Her mother and her brothers and sisters are imprisoned for the next 20 years for their Father's crimes. They are given very little to eat and live in horrible conditions with rats, scorpions and cockroaches. Malika finally decides to escape and beginsto dig her way out with a spoon. They finally escape and then try to live normally again after being locked up for 20 years. I really felt sorry for her youngest brother who went to prison when he was only 3 years old. He never knew any other life except for prison! This book is a must have for any collection.
Rating: 
Summary: A real "page turner"
Review: I picked up this book in the original French while in Nice last year and found the story so intriguing that I finished it in only three or four days--amazing given that French is not my preferred language to read in!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK!
Review: This is one of the most compelling books I have ever read and I am a voracious reader. You live the story right along with the family and it really captures your emotions. It was with GREAT sadness that I finished this book. It was written with such style that I felt like I was a part of the story. I recommend this book highly to all!
Rating:
Summary: a story people should read, but...
Review: ...I wish it were written better. This is an incrediable story which shows what happens when unaccountable lunkheads get to run a country. The Oufkir family overcame so much to escape from their unfair imprisonment, it truly is an amazing story. But, someone that went through such misery in their lifetime deserves a better editor. The whole first two-thirds of the book breaks the first rule of writing: "show, don't tell". I wanted some dialogue, some insight into the other people in her life, some wrapping up of loose ends. I wanted to know more about the politics of the coup. There's one sentance in the book about how she was (nearly?) engaged?! It would have been nice to know a little more about this huge piece of information. I could go on and on. Still worth reading, all political prisoners should write books that become best sellers.
Rating: 
Summary: It stole my life
Review: A tragic story but one of the most poorly written books I've ever read. Too bad because it was a fascinating tale that fell far short of mediocrity.
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Summary: What a read! A page turner
Review: I started this book on one day and finished it the next. This book absolutely takes over your mind till you finish. It is/was unbelieveable in this day and time to read that something like this happened.Granted some of the names and places kept me confused but it was worth the struggle to read this book. God bless Malika and her family as they continue to pick up the pieces and heal.
Rating:
Summary: This book was not meant to be a historical study
Review: Readers who might feel disappointed by the scarcity of political, historical, and social analysis in Stolen Lives would do well to consider that Malika Oufkir wrote it as a witness account of her own life. She interprets this life through the eyes of the child she was when growing up in the royal palace, then through those of an adolescent thirsting for freedom, and finally through the lens of a prisoner in King Hassan's jails, where she spent 20 years deprived of educational and social tools. Still deeply marked by her years as a captive, she only left Morocco in 1996 to settle in France. Rather than a critical study, this book was meant to be an autobiographical relation of the trajectories of a woman and her family in particularly dramatic circumstances. Neither is this book a personal diatribe against King Hassan. On the contrary, for those who are aware about other details in the King's life, such as Malika Oufkir who knows much more than she is willing to share in public, this book is remarkably measured and honest in its descriptions of the narrator's perceptions and emotions. Her focus is not the King's private life, which could give rise to quite a bit of juicy gossip. Malika Oufkir has too much dignity to stoop to low tactics of revenge. As for her escape in 1987, though sensational, it is not implausible. Other prisoners all over the world have managed to escape their jails, some to overcome even harsher and more challenging circumstances. Bravo to Malika Oufkir and her family for their resolve and their ability to survive! And bravo to Malika Oufkir for finding at least a tiny dose of the happiness that was so absent from her earlier years.
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