(Bantam Press, $42.99)
The disappearance of a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. Since Madeleine McCann was abducted from a Portuguese holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, Kate and Gerry McCann have suffered anguish the rest of us can’t begin to imagine.
Four years on, Kate has written a very personal account about what the family has been through. The book was conceived as a way to raise funds for the couple’s search for their daughter, but has also been penned partly to remind people around the world that Madeleine is still missing. And, says Kate, as hard as it was to write, she also wanted to give an account of the truth.
“For the past four years it has been excruciating to stand by as all kinds of tales have circulated about Madeleine’s disappearance and about Gerry, me and our family,” she writes, adding that many of the stories have not only caused great distress, but hindered their search.
She explains how it never occurred to her and Gerry that it wouldn’t be safe to leave Madeleine and her siblings Sean and Amelie sleeping alone in the apartment while they dined 100m away. It was a decision they now “bitterly regret, and will do so until the end of our days”.
Although this book is easy to read, it’s not an easy read. Her story is absolutely heartbreaking. The part that deals with the night of the abduction is particularly gut-wrenching, and later chapters in which she and Gerry are suspected of being involved in the disappearance invoke fury.
Madeleine is one of those books you don’t want to pick up but then find hard to put down. If it leaves you with anything, it’s respect for the McCanns’ courage and determination, an intense gratitude that you are not in their shoes, and a genuine hope that they will one day find out what has happened to their daughter.
