A Stolen Life: A Memoir

Jaycee Dugard

Jul 2011 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen.

For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.

For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived.

A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.

---

The pine cone is a symbol that represents the seed of a new beginning for me. To help facilitate new beginnings, with the support of animal-assisted therapy, the J A Y C Foundation provides support and services for the timely treatment of families recovering from abduction and the aftermath of traumatic experiences—families like my own who need to learn how to heal. In addition, the J A Y C Foundation hopes to facilitate awareness in schools about the important need to care for one another.

Our motto is “Just Ask Yourself to . . . Care!”

A portion of my proceeds from this memoir will be donated to The J A Y C Foundation Inc.

www.thejaycfoundation.org

Ratings and reviews

I read 95% of it and the story is captivating although very sad. I knew what i was going to be reading so i disconnected myself from the main character n thought of her as that rather than a real person. The book is a bit long with excessive details but still a story i finished. Its sick the kind of ppl there are out there n i think its worth her writing it if just to let ppl know how messed up ppl r.

Jaycee has shared her very painful story with us. I hope writing this has given her some peace and helped her foundation. The writing is, of course, at her educational level andis veryforthcoming with her feelings. Its also nice toread her reflections on that time as well. If you want to experience part of what she went through this is a good read. I would not recommend this if what she we t through bothers you to relive.

"Stolen Life" proves the more things change,the more they stay the same. History proves it. This story resonates because the same pathology that bred this atrocity invaded Africa: enslaving, caging, raping, brainwashing and controlling information - about African truth; ancestry; contributions & circumstance. Phil's refusal to accept responsibility, entitled authoritarianism, led to her feeling "I can't breathe". Racism, rape, sexism-colonialism's pathology of power dynamics. To ignore specific examples....

About the author

Jaycee Dugard is the author of the memoir A Stolen Life, which tells the story of her kidnapping and eighteen years of captivity. Her second book is Freedom: My Book of Firsts.