Escape from Slavery - by Francis Bok (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Books for a Better Life/Suze Orman First Book Award

May 1986: Seven-year-old Francis Bok was selling his mother's eggs and peanuts near his village in southern Sudan when Arab raiders on horseback burst into the quiet marketplace, murdering men and gathering the women and young children into a group. Strapped to horses and donkeys, Francis and others were taken north into lives of slavery under wealthy Muslim farmers.

For ten years, Francis lived in a shed near the goats and cattle that were his responsibility. After two failed attempts to flee--each bringing severe beatings and death threats--Francis finally escaped at age seventeen. He persevered through prison and refugee camps for three more years, winning the attention of United Nations officials who granted passage to America.

Now a student and an antislavery activist, Francis Bok has made it his life mission to combat world slavery. His is the first voice to speak to an estimated 27 million people held against their will in nearly every nation, including our own. Escape from Slavery is at once a riveting adventure, a story of desperation and triumph, and a window revealing a world that few have survived to tell.

Review Quotes

"A gripping story of terror and triumph." --Ebony

"A touching modern-day slave narrative...an inspirational story meant to heighten support for the antislavery movement of the 21st century, and it most likely will." --Joanne Skerrett, The Boston Globe

"Gripping...mindblowing. A-." --Karyn L. Barr, Entertainment Weekly

"Incredible." --Lewis Beale, USA Weekend

"[Escape from Slavery] carries the uncalculating ring of truth." --San Francisco Chronicle

"How will the world respond to Francis Bok's true story? Some will welcome its commercial profitability and entertainment value. And some will seek to change the world." --Anne Grant, Providence Journal

"Francis Bok is too young for anyone to predict a life of immortal dimensions. But if his heart-rending and powerful memoir...has just one-tenth of the impact of [Frederick] Douglass, his name will be remembered by more than a few." --Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News

"This is a powerful, exceptionally well-told story, equally riveting and heartbreaking. Although legal strides have been made, with the help of people like Bok, the persistence of slavery in the world makes this a work that can't be ignored." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Bok's saga provides another--more contemporary--perspective on slavery for Americans reckoning with their own troubling history of such inhumanity." --Booklist

About the Author

Francis Bok is an Associate at the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group. He speaks throughout the United States and has been featured in the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, Essence, and on Black Entertainment Television. He lives in Boston.

Edward Tivnan has collaborated on and is the author of several books. He was a reporter and staff writer for Time magazine and helped create ABC's 20/20. He lives in upstate New York.