Get our latest staff recommendations, award news and digital catalog links right to your inbox.
Table of Contents
About The Book
On the day my daughter was kidnapped by outlaws in Somalia, my life split into two parts: Before and After. This is the story of both parts, and of how I fought to bring my daughter home.
On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout, Lorinda Stewart’s daughter, is kidnapped outside of Mogadishu in Somalia. The kidnappers’ demand is simple: pay $2.5 million or Amanda will be killed. For the next 460 days, Lorinda does everything in her power—and beyond—to get her daughter back alive.
This brave, small-town mother with no experience in hostage negotiations is called upon by the RCMP to be the lead communicator with Adam, the Somali who identifies himself as the English-speaking negotiator for Amanda's kidnappers. In a secret “war room” in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Lorinda joins forces with federal officers and begins to answer calls from Adam, establishing a fragile rapport of trust with the man who holds her daughter’s fate in his hands. She learns how to demand POLs—proofs of life—from Amanda’s hostage takers and even how to react to “bad calls”—when she is forced to listen to her daughter’s desperate cries for help, fearing she is being abused and tortured.
What’s supposed to be a short negotiation stretches on, and weeks become months. Lorinda finds herself increasingly on her own as negotiations break down. But she never gives up hope, even as the conversations become more traumatic. Faced with the terrible possibility of her daughter’s death, she decides to take control, bringing in private hostage negotiators and fundraising ransom money from donors. But will it be enough?
This is the true story of one woman’s heroic perseverance in the face of despair, and of the hope and healing to be found beyond trauma. It is also, in the end, a tribute to the extraordinary power of a mother’s love.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 17, 2017)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781501143151
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
“Aside from being a love story between a mother who refused to lose hope and her strong-willed daughter, Stewart’s book is also an indictment of the Canadian government’s handling of the case.”
– The Toronto Star
"For all its moving detail about a mother’s love and ferocious dedication, One Day Closer is most compelling in the way it makes clear there’s no going back.”
– Maclean’s
“A gripping account of what [Lorinda] went through on the other side of the kidnapping.”
– Chatelaine
"A harrowing, soul-baring account of [Lorinda's] quest to get her daughter home—a story that leaves the reader feeling aged with each page at the brutality of it all.”
– The Canadian Press
“This book is impossible to put down. It is as inspiring as it is bone chilling…. A beautiful story of what love can do to conquer the impossible. Lorinda Stewart takes on an adrenaline-fuelled race against insurmountable odds. She becomes part detective, part hostage negotiator, part therapist, part government official but one hundred percent determined mother who will stop at nothing to save her daughter from her captors and bring her home to Canada. One Day Closer is an incredible story of hope and joy, grit and gumption. This a five-star rollercoaster ride that will keep you up at night until you’ve devoured the very last word.”
– Jann Arden, singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Falling Backwards
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): One Day Closer eBook 9781501143151
- Author Photo (jpg): Lorinda Stewart Photgraph (c) National Speakers Bureau(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit