That need to delve into our hidden lives was tied to my understanding of what a writer needs to be able to write.” ”I knew that the main requirement was an acquaintance with what lies beneath the surface of things. “I felt instinctively, when I was six or seven, that I would spend my life trying to write stories,” said Ravel, a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Giller Prize and the recipient of the Hugh MacLennan Prize and the Canadian Jewish Book Award. But years before, as a girl growing up on a newly established kibbutz in northern Israel, she knew she would be a writer one day. This is rich, thought-provoking stuff that would be excellent fodder for discussion and debate among older teens.Edeet Ravel’s first novel was published when she was in her early 40s. Better still is the emotional and intellectual paradox the novel sets up: is Chloe’s abductor a master manipulator or the sympathetic victim of a tyrannical regime? There are false sightings, nefarious rumours, and opportunists who attempt to capitalize on Chloe’s misfortune.

Particularly effective is her use of mocked-up newspaper clippings, Web pages, and Facebook-style social media posts to depict the events taking place back home during Chloe’s abduction. Guelph, Ontario’s Edeet Ravel once again proves herself an adept manipulator of difficult material. Chloe, in a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome, begins to feel what she describes as “immeasurable love” for her captor and dreams up scenarios for how they can meet – and even marry – after she is finally released. Although he reveals little about himself, not even his name, he does tell her he was once tortured as a political prisoner. As time goes by, Chloe increasingly comes to identify with her abductor. She is surprised by his kindness, and disarmed by his good looks. When she regains consciousness, Chloe finds herself in a makeshift apartment in an abandoned warehouse, where she is visited daily by a male captor who brings her food, books, even wine. Worst case scenarios run through her mind: Will she be sold as a sex slave? Do they want to experiment on her? Kill her for her organs? Seventeen-year-old Chloe Mills is in Greece on a summer volunteer work program when she is abducted by a couple who blindfold her, drug her, and take her by plane to another country.

Held by edeet ravel