Escape from Slavery

A Sudanese man recounts his harrowing journey from child enslavement to escape and freedom in this “touching [and] inspirational” memoir (The Boston Globe).

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 him passage to America.

Now a student and activist, Francis has dedicated his life to combating world slavery. He now speaks for the 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 rare window into a world that few have survived to tell.

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