This book definitely makes my top 24 books.  It’s by Malika Oufkir. 

I first read it in high school, and reread it a couple years ago.  It’s about Malika’s time as a companion to Princess Amina (the daughter of a Moroccan king), and her time at the palace.  It also covers 20 years in different prisons, getting shuttled from prison to prison, and her escape from prison, a house arrest after escaping from prison, and ends with a final escape to freedom. 

It’s definitely a good read and I couldn’t put it down.  It’s amazing what she and her family went through.  The fact that she and her family were political prisoners for so long…I can’t even wrap my brain around the fact that they saved up their rations to make cakes and made toys out of cardboard.  That even though they were in prison, they celebrated holidays and their birthdays.  That Malika considered herself to be a member of the royal family, and that she was the daughter of the kings closest aide, and then to spend 20 in prison because her father led a coup against the king…It couldn’t have been easy for her.  To have to choose between her biological father and her adoptive father…

It’s definitely in my top 15- I’m not sure where in the top 15 but that’s definitely where it is, if I had to put them in order.