As a girl, Amanda Lindhout had always wanted to see the world, and at age 27 she found herself in Baghdad, filing news reports for a couple of American networks and writing for her hometown paper in Canada. She headed for Somalia, where she hoped to do a month's worth of reporting, but on her fourth day she and the photographer she was traveling with were kidnapped by insurgents. They were held 460 days, freed only after their families managed to raise $600,000 through fund-raisers, borrowing, donations, and other means. Lindhout (with New York Times magazine writer Sara Corbett) wrote a book about the experience, "A House in the Sky," newly out in paperback. (Here's a link to the Strib review.)
While still a captive, Lindhout decided that if she was ever freed, she would work to help bring education and development to Somalia. She has since established the nonprofit Global Enrichment Foundation, which works with people in Somalia and Kenya.
Lindhout will be in the Twin Cities at 7 p.m. Tuesday (June 24) at Open Book, 1011 Washington Av. S., Mpls., at an event co-sponsored by the American Refugee Committee, the Loft, and Magers & Quinn.
