The Weight of Sand

The true story of Edith Blais's 450 days of captivity in the Sahara Desert at the hands of terrorists--and her stunning escape to freedom. In January 2019, news outlets reported that a young Canadian woman and her Italian companion were presumed kidnapped while traveling in Africa's Sahel region, a haven for jihadist groups. Little was known about the pair's fate until they reappeared in Mali fifteen months later, having apparently escaped their captors. Now, in The Weight of Sand, Edith Blais tells the harrowing story of her 450 days of captivity in the Sahara and her courageous escape. In striking, sensitive prose, she recounts the prolonged terror of her months as a hostage, enduring violent sandstorms, grueling hunger strikes, extreme isolation, and the unpredictability of her captors. The book also includes luminous poems Edith wrote in secret, which became a lifeline of creativity and one of the few possessions she smuggled out in her escape. A compelling descent into a strange, brutal universe, The Weight of Sandis ultimately a life-affirming book--a celebration of resilience by a woman who refused to have her humanity stripped away.