Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton were journalists and filmmakers working in Iraq on a documentary with their Iraqi translator Amir Doshi. In the late summer of 2004, they began to wrap up their work, and Marie-Helene returned home while Micah remained for a final two weeks of filming. As Micah and Amir were filming in a Nasiriyah market, something went horribly wrong: Micah was unmasked as a foreigner and kidnapped by militants in southern Iraq.
Home in New York, Marie-Helene awoke to a gut-wrenching phone call from Micah's mother with word of his abduction. She promised Micah's mother the impossible -- that together they would bring Micah back alive.
American Hostage is the remarkable memoir of Micah Garen's harrowing abduction and survival in captivity, as well as the heroic and successful struggle of Marie-Helene along with family and friends to win Micah's and Amir's release from their captors. The world watched and waited as Micah's drama unfolded, but the authors, now safely home and engaged to be married, detail the dramatic untold story.
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"I LOVED this book. What an ordeal they went through and came out better for it. It was an easy read and kept me wanting to read more. " — Ria (5 out of 5 stars)
"I LOVED this book. What an ordeal they went through and came out better for it. It was an easy read and kept me wanting to read more. "
“An astonishing read. What unfolds from the terrifying drama of Micah Garen’s kidnapping by Iraqi militants is a complete surprise: a moving, sympathetic portrait of Iraq and its people struggling against the chaos unleashed by the American liberation. American Hostage explores some of the darkest terrain in the human condition and emerges with hope still beating.”
“In this chilling tale of Micah Garen’s captivity and his loved ones’ fight for his release lies a simple truth: love can—and will—push through all that hate just as surely as blades of grass through a sidewalk.”
“Moving and suspenseful…Garen recalls his fear, anger and confusion with clarity and immediacy, never demonizing his captors yet never condoning their acts…Even readers who followed the story in the newspapers will find much that is new since so many of the crucial negotiations happened off the front page. And with a romantic subplot humming through the tension, this story is made for the silver screen.”
“Gripping…The authors do an admirable job of leading the reader through the chaos of their days, and although the ending is a foregone conclusion, their story remains extraordinarily compelling. An incredible tale told with intensity by two very lucky people.”
" I LOVED this book. What an ordeal they went through and came out better for it. It was an easy read and kept me wanting to read more. "
Micah Garen is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose print work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, New York Times magazine, Vanity Fair, and Newsweek, and whose footage appeared in Fahrenheit 9/11. He is a member of the Overseas Press Club, the PEN American Center, and the National Press Photographers Association. He lives in New York with his partner, Marie-Helene, and their dog, Zeugma.
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