Lost to the World

A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Five Years in Terrorist Captivity

By: Shahbaz Taseer

Narrated by: Adam Karim

Shahbaz Taseer’s memoir of his five-year-long captivity at the hands of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

In late August 2011, Shahbaz Taseer was driving to his office in Lahore when he was dragged from his car at gunpoint and kidnapped by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a Taliban-affiliated Uzbek terrorist group. Shahbaz’s father, the late Pakistani governor, had recently been assassinated. His crime: speaking in support of a Christian woman who had been accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Though Taseer himself wasn’t much interested in politics, he was somewhat of a public figure, and he represented a more tolerant, internationally connected Pakistan that the IMU despised.

What followed was nearly five years of torture and harrowing danger while Taseer was held captive, his fate determined by the infighting of the IMU, the Taliban, and ISIS. Lost to the World is his memoir of that time—a story of extraordinary sorrow but also of goodness and faith. While deeply dramatic, this tale is also comedic; for Taseer, humor, as much as the Koran, provided a light by which to see his own humanity, even under the most inhumane conditions, and to find a way back to his family.

In a time when Western leaders use fear-mongering rhetoric to paint all followers of Islam as dangerous fundamentalists, Lost to the World illustrates the chasm between Muslim terrorists and ordinary Muslim citizens, and how terrorist organizations gain strength from the war on terror.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2021 Shahbaz Taseer (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Taseer’s story is both chilling and infused with bravery and wisdom. This testament to the resilience of the human spirit will inspire any reader." —Publishers Weekly

“What a book. Lost to the World is a survival narrative unlike any other. In this unforgettable page-turner, true-life miracles and high-tech death fall from the sky. Our hero endures medieval torments, witnesses acts of sudden kindness, and escapes one surreal prison and battlefield after another. Above all, Shahbaz Taseer’s account of his captivity and liberation is, like Papillon and Unbroken, a deeply moving testament to the triumph of the human spirit.” —Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Deep Down Dark

“Shahbaz Taseer draws you into his endless imprisonment. I was afraid of turning the page, afraid of what lay ahead. I found myself oscillating between tears and laughter. This memoir is a complete tour de force of emotions. I am convinced that it was Taseer’s compassion and resilience that kept him alive and that he was guided by the faith he had in his family and the courage instilled in him by his father.” —Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award–winning filmmaker and journalist

Riveting

An incredibly detailed account of a very difficult time. There is much to be learnt from Taseer's grit in the face of impossibe odds.

Goosebumps

Salam to your Ammi. Respect!
I hope you heal, easier said but I believe you have a good support system around you.

Incredible!

The courage and fortitude of this man is truly inspiring. The audible version plays just like a movie could not stop listening to it, literally took drives, stayed in bed and finished the whole thing in under a day.

Disturbing and captivating

The story is well written and performed. I found the torture scenes difficult to listen to. The thing that allowed me to persist was knowing that he did survive and go on to write a book. Includes amazing insights into human dynamics.