The Weight of Sand

**A radiant, unforgettable memoir of one woman's 450 days spent in captivity, and her defiant refusal to have her humanity stripped away.**When Edith meets Luca in a small Northern town, the two connect instantly. Under the Northern Lights, they develop a deep friendship over their shared passions: travel, living off the land, a bohemian life. In search of wanderlust, they embark on an epic road trip from Italy to Togo, where they will join their friend's sustainable farming project. Upon arriving on the African continent, they change their itinerary and drive through Africa's Sahel region, a haven for militant groups, where they are surrounded and captured. Little was known about Edith's and Luca's fate until they reappeared in Mali more than one year later, having mysteriously escaped their captors.**Now,** **E** **dith shares her harrowing story with the world for the first time --complete with the poems that...