Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six

The "New York Times "bestselling memoir of humanitarian aid worker Jessica Buchanan's kidnapping by Somali land pirates, praised as "spellbinding....written with clarity and compassion" ("The New York Journal of Books"). On October 25, 2011, thirty-two year-old Jessica Buchanan was working as a teacher for a humanitarian NGO in Somalia. But on that day she and a colleague were kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom by Somali pirates who had moved their operations from the sea onto the land. Finally, after ninety-three days of fruitless negotiations, and with Jessica's rapidly failing health raising her medical state to a life and death issue, President Barack Obama ordered Navy SEAL Team Six to raid the location. On January 25, 2012, nine heavily armed hostiles were killed with no harm to the hostages, who were quickly airlifted out on a military rescue helicopter. Throughout the ordeal, every moment Jessica Buchanan spent suffering in captivity was matched by that of her adoring husband, Erik Landemalm. In riveting detail, "Impossible Odds" chronicles their mutual journey during those torturous months. Together they relate the events prior to the kidnapping, the drama of Jessica's fight to stay alive, and Erik's efforts to bolster and support the hunt for her while he acted as a liaison between their two families, the FBI, professional hostage negotiators, and the United States government. Both a testament to two people's courage and a nail-biting look at a life-or-death struggle, this is a harrowing and deeply personal story about their triumph over impossible odds.