Freed hostage Eli Sharabi has broken the Israeli record for fastest-selling book with Hostage, a raw memoir of his 491 days in Hamas captivity.
The book, which sold 20,000 copies in its first week, earned Sharabi the Golden Book Award on Monday – just four months after his release in a ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.
Speaking during the online award ceremony, Sharabi, 52, said he wrote the book “to show how much you can choose the cards in your hand, you can make the choice to live and how to live.”
The former tech executive was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October. His wife, Lianne, and daughters Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were murdered in the Hamas attack. His brother Yossi was also taken hostage and later killed. His body is still being held in Gaza.
Sharabi was held with fellow hostages Alon Ohel, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen. During their months in captivity, he said, they taught Cohen English using the only book they had – a novel by Leigh Bardugo.
“We taught Eliya English and he read the book a few times, he learnt English in captivity,” Sharabi recalled.
Written in just two months, Hostage is the first memoir published by a released captive. Sharabi said it was also written for those still inside Gaza – including 23-year-old Ohel, who remains in Hamas hands.
“I can’t stop thinking about them and acting for them, so that they come home – and they will,” he said.
Now in London with his brother Sharon after their flight home was diverted due to the Iran conflict, Sharabi credited books as powerful tools for conveying reality.
“Books – more than films, TV series or plays – are able to relate the true circumstances of a situation,” he said.
The book, published by Sella Meir, will be translated into multiple languages. Sharabi thanked the Israeli public for their support: “It shows how much our survival mattered.”
