The Desert and the Sea summary

Moore was no muddle-headed tourist. He is a professional journalist and knows what it takes to operate as one. Consequently, he’d devised a clear plan for his research. He would head to Hobyo, perhaps the most notorious hangout for pirates on the Somali coast. There, he would interview a pirate.

There’s no denying it was risky, but the author thought he'd taken every precaution.

On the way back from Galkayo airport, Moore’s car was brought to a sudden stop. A flatbed truck mounted with a cannon came into view, but even when about a dozen armed men jumped out of it, Moore was still trying to believe it was just a traffic stop. It all happened so fast. There was simply nothing he could do. Blows rained down on him. His glasses were broken when the kidnappers struck him in the face. They hit him hard with the butts of their guns as he held on tight to the car door. The bones in his wrist were shattered.

At that instant, he realized that the line had been crossed; he was no longer a free man, but a hostage. Pure terror descended. It wasn’t just the thought of his immediate situation that shocked him, but the idea that his family would have to suffer.

As you can imagine, being a hostage is no walk in the park. For Moore, it was the isolation that got to him. Thankfully, he was occasionally bunked with other captives.

Just days after being captured, Moore met two other hostages, both fishermen from the Seychelles. One of them, Rolly Tambara, became his firm friend as they faced down their ordeal.

The pirates Moore encountered weren’t super consistent in their practices and beliefs. For starters, many of them were khat addicts.

Khat is a plant whose leaves, when chewed, produce a stimulant effect. To Somalis, khat is pretty widespread. It’s about as common as alcohol is in the West. However, it is also addictive, and users soon get hooked.

Anyone who’s made any kind of deal knows you have to adhere to a few basic principles: set realistic goals and be prepared to negotiate. Unfortunately, the pirates who’d kidnapped Moore hadn’t even got that far.

For starters, their ransom demand was off the charts. It began at an eye-watering – and frankly, baffling – 20 million dollars. As time passed and it became clear that Moore’s mother and friends weren’t going to get anywhere close to that amount, the pirates still refused to countenance even a cent lower.

When you’re a hostage, there’s plenty to be afraid of. An air of violence lingers over everything, and there’s no way of knowing what will happen on any given day.

However, if there’s one aspect to being a hostage that’s too often forgotten, then it’s the fact that it feels both pointless and tedious.

Eventually, Moore’s time as a hostage came to an end. But there was no drama to it. It just ended out of the blue.

There came a point in his captivity when the phone calls had ceased to mean anything, ultimately ending only in disappointment. So, one day, when he was given a phone to speak with yet another hostage negotiator, he didn’t think much of it. He refused to let himself believe it mattered. But this time it did.