The book Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi is one of the best books written about courage and perserverance . Stolen Lives is about a family who is almost royalty. Malika’s father, General Muhammad Oufkir, is the second most powerful man in Morocco. King Muhammad V is the most powerful man in the country because he is the king. King Muhammad V meets Malika when she and her mother come to visit the palace. The King almost immediately falls in love with her, so he decides to adopt her. Through the years, she is treated as a princess with the King’s daughter, Lalla Mina.








A couple years later, Muhammad V dies, and his son Hassan II come into power. Hassan treats Malika like his own daughter and enjoys being around Lalla Mina and Malkia. A few years later, General Oufkir is in a coup to try to assassinate the King. Their plan fails, and he is executed and his family is sent to prison for almost twenty years. Fatima Oufkir ( wife of General Oufkir) and her six children : Malika, Maria, Soukaina, Raouf, Myriam, Abdellatif, and two cousins that go with them endure the worst conditions that you can imagine.


They are sent to about three prisons over the course of their twenty years that they are imprisoned. They are starving in cells with no exercise or communication with each other and are basically dying. They kept writing to the King to pardon them, but he never did. They make an escape tunnel at the first prison, but they move on to another prison before they can carry out their plan to escape. While at the third prison, they make another tunnel and Malika, Raouf, Maria, and Abdellatif escape to declare justice for their family. However, five days later they are recaptured and returned to prison.






Later on, the King almost pardons them and sends them to a house, but they are under house arrest. This confinement is a lot better than the prisons they were rotting in. It had beds, food, and tv. In 1996 after twenty-four years in prison, they were finally pardoned by the king and were allowed to leave Morocco. They were finally free.
I think this book was great because it had a lot of adventure. It showed a family’s courage, determination, love, and struggle to stick together and survive. It is a great book and you won’t be able to put it down