Almost three years ago, I started writing a book. It's a memoir and investigation of my father Terry Anderson's kidnapping and seven-year captivity by Shiite Muslim terrorists in Lebanon. It will be published with Dey Street, a HarperCollins imprint, on October 4 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I've included a summary and some of the advance praise it has received below.
In this gripping blend of reportage, memoir, and analysis, a journalist and daughter of one of the world's most famous hostages, Terry Anderson, takes an intimate look at her father's captivity during the Lebanese Hostage Crisis and the ensuing political firestorm on both her family and the United States--as well as the far-reaching implications of those events on Middle Eastern politics today.
In 1991, six-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 her entire life by a Shiite Muslim militia associated 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 return--and 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 shocking--not just about Terry, but about the international political machinations that occurred during the years of his captivity.
The Hostage's Daughter is an intimate look at the effect of the Lebanese Hostage Crisis on Anderson's 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 Hostage's Daughter is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations, this violent, haunted region, and America's role in its fate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sulome Anderson has been working as a feature writer in the Middle East since receiving a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She's covered topics ranging from Syrian refugee suicides to the war against ISIS for publications including Foreign Policy, Vox, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and VICE. She is based in Beirut and New York City.
Follow her on Twitter @SulomeAnderson
Praise for The Hostage's Daughter, by Sulome Anderson
"The Hostage's Daughter is a riveting memoir written by the daughter of one of history's most famous hostages, American journalist Terry Anderson. Going beyond the headlines, this intensely personal story of his kidnapping and return tells a deeper, darker, and far more intimate account of what happens when a father-daughter relationship succumbs to political casualty. Whereas Terry Anderson came back to America plagued with PTSD from his seven years of brutal captivity and torture, his daughter Sulome found herself equally as traumatized, enduring long battles with mental illness and substance abuse. Desperate to understand her father, Sulome began traveling back to the Middle East. She tracked down his captors, only to find out that the politics behind his kidnapping extended far beyond the surface of what was reported in the news.
In trying to understand the mindset of those who took her father, Sulome draws on her experience as a Middle East analyst and reporter, injecting her story with nuanced analysis that challenges our mainstream understanding of global politics, terrorism, and her home country of Lebanon. What emerges is a haunting and eye-opening story about the implications her father's captivity had on United States foreign policy, and of America's own role in its fate within the region. By probing into the mistakes made during Terry Anderson's captivity, The Hostage's Daughter also serves as a cautionary tale of history repeating itself. Eloquently written, Sulome's debut book articulates not only the political climate at the time of her father's kidnapping, but also the reactionary impulses that still dictate American foreign policy today.
An excellent piece of reportage from someone who clearly has an intimate understanding of the Middle East in all its complexities and nuances--interwoven with an equally gripping and emotional account of one woman's quest for reason and forgiveness. This is the story that few journalists have the bravery to write about others, let alone themselves."
--Reza Aslan, author of Zealot
"There are times when you want to look away. This book is that personal. By telling the story of the author--and her famous family--it also traces the story of terrorism in the modern era, in gripping and intimate ways."
--Brian Williams, MSNBC
"A gutsy coming-of-age memoir, beautifully written, and always provocative. From wounded adolescence to fearless investigative reporter, Sulome Anderson confronts her father's kidnappers--and along the way, she shines a harsh light on the murky world of intelligence in a distraught Middle East. A poignant and astonishing mystery story."
--Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
"Sulome Anderson's deeply personal and brutally frank memoir moved me to tears. This skillfully told tale of a life on the very edge and the quest for answers that brought Anderson face-to-face with her father's kidnappers in Beirut powerfully demonstrates that suffering need not destroy. Terry Anderson can truly be proud of his intelligent and spirited daughter."
--Terry Waite CBE, former hostage, President of Hostage UK and author of Taken on Trust
"Sulome Anderson wasn't even born when her father, the American journalist Terry Anderson, was taken hostage by Shiite terrorists, and she was seven years old before he was released and she first saw him. In this heart-felt, moving memoir, Sulome retraces her father's path in life, returning to Lebanon as a journalist herself and courageously confronting some of the very men involved in his kidnapping and abuse. The result is both an exploration of the sometimes difficult love between father and daughter, and also an examination of a greatly changed Middle East and the groups that benefited from their hostage taking and other terrorist activities, but are far from atoning for them. Well-worth reading for anyone who wants to understand that region, and the human impact of war and terrorism."
--Rod Nordland, international correspondent at large, The New York Times and author of The Lovers
"Violent conflicts always entangle the innocent, and the scars they leave take decades to heal. Journalist Sulome Anderson set out to find her father's kidnapper; in the process, she found herself. Her brutally candid, fiercely intelligent, and beautifully crafted memoir is both a fascinating introduction to the shadow world of Middle East intrigue and an inspiring story of resilience and recovery."
--Stephen M. Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
"If this is a book about personal reclamation, it is also about deliverance. Sulome Anderson has given us a remarkable personal story as well as penetrating insight into the adamantine world of the Middle East, where truth and politics are irreconcilable. She, like the terrorists, spooks, politicians and bureaucrats she encountered, has had her own war to wage, and her personal victory in the face of great odds is deeply effective. This book is a testament to a talented and courageous young woman--every inch her father's daughter."
--Brian Keenan, former hostage and author of An Evil Cradling