Girl in the Cellar - The Natascha Kampusch Story
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When Natascha Kampusch made her bid for freedom on 23 August 2006 after eight years held captive in a seemingly ordinary Austrian suburban house, her story horrified and astonished the entire world.
How did she survive a childhood locked in a cellar?
What sort of young woman had emerged?
What kind of man was Wolfgang Priklopil, her abductor - and what demands had he made of her?
As the days and weeks passed and Natascha's TV interview failed to quell the curiosity, so the questions began to change.
What exactly was the relationship between abductor and hostage?
Why had Natascha waited so long to escape when it seemed there had been other, earlier opportunities?
Did Natascha's parents know Priklopil before he kidnapped their daughter?
Allan Hall and Michael Leidig have tracked the story from the days of the 10-year-old's disappearance. They have spoken to police investigators, lawyers, psychiatrists, and to the family members closest to Natascha. They have come as close as possible to uncovering the full, shocking story. It is a story that tests the limits of our understanding of how human beings behave - and makes our hearts bleed for the plight of an innocent child caught up in a horror story almost beyond our imagining.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This exploration of the disturbing kidnapping and eight years of an Austrian girl as a hostage matches its tabloidesque topic. There's little doubt that Natascha Kampusch's captivity is captivating, and veteran journalists Hall and Leidig know the story well. For those who may know the story only from the headlines-she was abducted in Vienna and spent the next eight years as a prisoner in an urban fortress-they offer a wealth of new, often sensationalist background information about Kampusch, about her troubled relationship with her divorced parents, and about her abductor, Wolfgang Prikopil. For instance, before the kidnapping Prikopil went to the same bar frequented separately by Kampusch's father and by her mother's boyfriend. They are also critical of the way the local police handled the case, calling them both inefficient and simplistic in their methods. Unfortunately, many answers surrounding the case are still unknown: Prikopil committed suicide right after Kampusch escaped this summer, and Kampusch herself has been circumspect in discussing parts of her captivity. As a result, the authors have to rely on comments by neighbors and psychiatrists to speculate about the gaps: Did Prikopil sexually abuse Kampusch? Why did she take so long to run away, since after a few years Prikopil let her go out in public with him? Those fascinated by the case will be partially satiated, but much of this case that shocked Austria remains hidden.
