On the 7th of October 2023, Eli Sharabi is abducted from his family home in Kibbutz Be'eri as one of 251 hostages taken by Hamas. After 491 days in captivity, Sharabi is released. Once home in Israel, he is informed that his wife and two teenage daughters were shot and killed the day he was abducted.
Hostage is Sharabis own telling of his days in captivity and the time that followed, and is the first memoir written by one of the 7th of October hostages. The book gives a unique insight into the Israeli hostages' situation and experiences. Sharabi writes about survival in extreme conditions, full of hunger, isolation and daily physical and psychological torments.
Hostage is also the story of the human ability to hold on to hope when everything seems hopeless. It is about the stresses of captivity, but also about the sense of community among prisoners, and, ultimately, about one man's decision to choose life, day after day.
The book has received widespread critical acclaim, not least for Sharabi's sparing but precise language, and The Times calls the memoir "A devastating account of hope".
At the House of Literature, Sharabi meets historian and author Marte Heian-Engdal for a conversation about his experiences and the universally human: about longing, love and the will to survive.
The conversation will be in English.
