Lost to the World - by Shahbaz Taseer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Shahbaz Taseer's memoir of his five-year-long captivity at the hands of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

In late August 2011, Shahbaz Taseer was dragged from his car at gunpoint and kidnapped by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a Talibanaffiliated Uzbek terrorist group. Taseer's father, the governor of Punjab, Pakistan, had recently been assassinated for speaking in support of a Christian woman who had been accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Though Taseer himself wasn't involved in politics, he was still a public figure who represented a more tolerant, internationally connected Pakistan that the IMU condemned. What followed his kidnapping was nearly five years of torture and constant peril as Taseer was held captive by the IMU in the ungoverned reaches of Pakistan and Afghanistan, his fate subject to the unpredictable whims and machinations of terrorists. Lost to the World is his memoir of that time--a story of extraordinary sorrow but also of empathy and faith.

While deeply harrowing, this tale is also about resilience. Taseer countered his
captors' narrative of a holy war by immersing himself in the Quran in search of hope
and a means to see his own humanity under even the most inhumane conditions, and
ultimately to find a way back to his family.

Review Quotes

"Taseer's story is both chilling and infused with bravery and wisdom. This testament to the resilience of the human spirit will inspire any reader." --Publishers Weekly

"What a book. Lost to the World is a survival narrative unlike any other. In this unforgettable page-turner, true-life miracles and high-tech death fall from the sky. Our hero endures medieval torments, witnesses acts of sudden kindness, and escapes one surreal prison and battlefield after another. Above all, Shahbaz Taseer's account of his captivity and liberation is, like Papillon and Unbroken, a deeply moving testament to the triumph of the human spirit." --Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Deep Down Dark

"Shahbaz Taseer draws you into his endless imprisonment. I was afraid of turning the page, afraid of what lay ahead. I found myself oscillating between tears and laughter. This memoir is a complete tour de force of emotions. I am convinced that it was Taseer's compassion and resilience that kept him alive and that he was guided by the faith he had in his family and the courage instilled in him by his father."
--Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist

About the Author