Kidnapping Survivor Jessica Buchanan Shopping a Book Proposal

By Jason Boog 

Kidnapping survivor and humanitarian aid worker Jessica Buchanan is shopping a book proposal with Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management.

While working in Africa last October, Buchanan (pictured) was kidnapped by a band of armed Somalis. After more than 90 days of captivity, a team of Navy SEALS rescued Buchanan in January. The memoir will also contain letters that her husband Erik Landemalm wrote to his wife during her captivity. Here’s more from the book proposal:

Jessica and Erik, in this “dual memoir” will contrapuntally relate the events prior to the kidnapping and then the drama of Jessica’s efforts to stay alive and Erik’s efforts to bolster and support the hunt for her while he acted as liaison between the families at home, the FBI, professional hostage negotiators, and the US Government. The progression of the story will reveal the thoughts and feelings of this couple, desperate to return to one another and continue the lives they’d barely begun when the kidnappers struck. The violent and bloody rescue that freed the two captives gave Jessica a second chance at her young married life.



Editor’s note: A previous version of this post misidentified Buchanan’s profession as a missionary.