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How does one survive when all hope is lost?
In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders
administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and taken away
to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months,
André was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to
survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty
years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang,
Jerusalem, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles) recounts André's harrowing
experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one man's
determination in the face of a hopeless situation.
Marking a departure from the author's celebrated first-person
travelogues, Delisle tells the story through the perspective of the
titular captive, who strives to keep his mind alert as desperation
starts to set in. Working in a pared down style with muted color washes,
Delisle conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement,
compelling us to ask ourselves some difficult questions regarding the
repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers and what it really means to
be free. Thoughtful, intense, and moving, Hostage takes a profound
look at what drives our will to survive in the darkest of moments.
