Everything the American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham has in their lives had been snatched away in one swift moment as they were in the midst of a wedding anniversary vacation in an exotic Palawan resort. The rest is the horrific nightmare of their ordeal more than a year under the hands of the Abu Sayyaf which has been believed to have had ties to the Osama Bin Laden network
The book is a daily chronicle of the harrowing details of that ordeal, written in the midst of the heat, cold, smell, exhaustion, as well as bullets of gun battles between the Abu Sayyaf and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, not to mention the grisly tales of murder and terror. It is a heart-gripping account. Above all, what stands out is the realization of who they were deep down inside. Although feeling the ruthlessness of their abduction, they felt this was their destiny, to the point that they knew they had to believe God's word whether they it or otherwise. But for the Abu Sayyaf, this was no ruthless undertaking, and felt that this too was their destiny.
After the book was publicly released in the Philippines, certain events seemed to have overtaken its significance. Some quarters have tried to discredit the author in her alleged clearing of the Philippine military as having been involved in wheeling and dealing with her captors. Suffice it to say that a large part of the postmortem tales was media hearsay.
That however should not detract the reader from the intrinsic value of the book- an unusual account of the human heart that many should not miss with the pleasure of reading. It has so much sensitivity, freshness, and delicacy that appeal to the idealism of anyone.
