Product Description

'I lived through the Dutroux affair from the inside, and all these years I have kept silent about it - about my 'personal' Dutroux Affair, my time in the company of the most hated psychopath in Belgium. I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one ever asks me any more questions ever again; and so that the judicial system never again frees a paedophile for 'good behaviour'.' 'The Dutroux Affair' shook the whole of Europe. In the middle of the immense machinery of investigation and justice there was Sabine Dardenne herself, Dutroux's last victim. She was held captive for eighty days - and survived. Far from sensationalising the horror, her story, dignified and restrained, is ultimately uplifting. Says Sabine Dardenne, 'I choose to live'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287625 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'A moving tale of courage and survival. Extraordinary strength ... one comes away from her book shocked, angered and deeply humbled' Mail 'Like the scariest fairy tales, it involves a little girl, a secret dungeon and a monster. But it is not a fairy tale: it is true ... I have never read a more harrowing book... unbearable were it not for the character - brave, difficult, honest and furiously unsentimental - of its narrator' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'A portrait of courage' Ireland on Sunday 'Direct, unpretentious, chatty, feet-on-the-ground. Sometimes shockingly so.' Guardian 'I Choose to Live is [Sabine Dardenne's] dignified, restrained and ultimately uplifting testimony' Big Issue

Mail
'One comes away from her book shocked, angered and deeply humbled’

Guardian
'direct, unpretentious, chatty, feet-on-the-ground. Sometimes shockingly so'

Customer Reviews

Horrific story of a very brave girl
"I Choose to Live" is a very apt title for this book by Sabine Dardenne about her 80 days as a twelve year old held captive by Marc Dutroux, Belgium's notorious paedophile. Sabine describes her ordeal at Dutroux's hands pretty graphically, though understandably holds back on the worst of what happened to her. The conditions she describes being held in are almost unbelievable, and would not be believed if written in fiction. Sabine describes the events she was forced to go through with tremendous courage and really opens your eyes as to just what horrors some people are capable of.

Her perspective is almost unique, from the point of view that very few girls survive this sort of ordeal, and so you really get a sense of what it is like to be the victim in such a crime. Too often books focus on the perpetraitor, but here Sabine speaks for all victims of sex crimes and this makes the piece very moving.

Equally interesting is the events that happened after her rescue - how she dealt with her ordeal, the break up of her family, her treatment by the media and those whose daughters were killed by Dutroux, her friendship with her fellow cative Laetitia Dehlez and the trial. All these are described in detail and merely add to the respect you already feel for a person who has come through all this trauma sane. It is fascinating to see the differences between the Belgian legal system and our own. Sabine also gives her opinion on the idea Dutroux was merely a middle man in a large paedophile ring which are also fascinating to read.

I can't say I enjoyed this book, as the subject matter is horrendous. I also think it lost a little of it's power in translation and at times the chronlogy is a bit muddled and hard to follow. However, this is still an important and worthwile read, and I have a hgue admiration for it's tremendously brave author.

What are we going to do about it?
I pounced on this book after reading an interview with Sabine Dardenne in the "Guardian." Naturally there was my morbid curiosity about her experiences at the hands of a serial killer, but something about the feisty, engaging clear-headed voice of this young woman made me want to hear more from her. This book completely satisfies. Much more than a victim's statement, it is a testament of a normal young life and how it's been lived, during and after a failed attempt to subjugate and destroy it.

Sabine sets forth her experiences here honestly and perceptively (leaving out the details of what Marc Dutroux did to her sexually--sorry, thrill-seekers) but perceptively analyzing exactly how this not very bright psychopath was able to get away with doing what he did to her and his other victims, with a little help from his wife, a few friends, and a criminal justice system that enabled this pedophile/sadist/rapist to carry on his long and destructive career with a minimum of incarceration and apparently no follow-up afterwards.

As we learn more about sex criminals, particularly sadists and pedophiles, it's becoming clearer that such individuals cannot be rehabilitated, nor can they be trusted to live among the public at large. The solution Sabine poses, to either institutionalize them for life or keep them electronically tethered or otherwise under constant control and observation, would have spared her her 80 days as a tortured captive. But to do this would take a revolution in our way of thinking of sexual crimes against women and children--to see them as a serious threat to our community, rather than as an extension of male privilege. The same sense of male privilege that caused Dutroux to dare use Sabine the way he did.

Wasn't Sure
I really was not sure what to expect from this book. Would it be too horrific to read I wondered?
What I found was an extremely courageous woman that told her story with heart and determination.
She should hold her head up high and walk with a sure step in society, she has been through enough. This book will tell you all, it is emotional, sad and at times fill you with the anger I am sure she felt. High kudo's for this book, I hope it will be a top 10 seller.
Other reads I have found of late that are emotional as well- Nightmares Echo, Little Prisoner and Glass Castle. All superb writing