Sample Translation Available

On August 20, 2004, reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were kidnapped en route from Baghdad to Najaf. For the next 124 days, they were hostages.

The demands came quickly. Eight days after the abduction, Al Jazeera aired footage of the hostages accompanied by an ultimatum: France had 48 hours to revoke the law banning headscarves and other religious symbols in public schools. The demand was a sharp departure from those of previous kidnappings. France was drawn into the maelstrom.

Chesnot and Malbrunot log their days and nights in rooms with boarded windows, peeking under blindfolds at take-out addresses on the bags containing their meals. Upon their return, bodies intact, they begin their own eventual counter-inquiry into the conditions of their release, the intelligence gathered, and the politics of negotiation.

Christian Chesnot is a correspondent for Radio France. Georges Malbrunot writes for Le Figaro. Both have lived in the Middle East for the past fifteen years. During that time, they collaborated on Saddam Hussein, portrait total (Éditions No. 1, 2003), and Les Années Saddam (Fayard, 2003).