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Diane Foley is the mother of Jim Foley, the American journalist who was kidnapped in 2012 by members of ISIS in Syria, and beheaded on camera in 2014. Diane has written a memoir called American Mother, with the help of Irish novelist Colum McCann, about the hostage ordeal and its long echo. The book describes her meeting with one of Jim’s captors, Alexanda Kotey, after Kotey pled guilty to charges regarding Jim and several other western hostages. He’s serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

Diane now runs the Foley Foundation in Washington, DC, which speaks up for hostages, and Colum is a co-founder of Narrative 4, a global storytelling nonprofit.

This podcast comes in advance of a long-read essay about the trial in my own hostage case. We had some audio interference, so if we talk over each other it’s because we couldn’t hear each other as well during the live interview as you’ll be able to hear us now.

Resources:

American Mother, by Diane Foley and Colum McCann

Foley Foundation website

Colum McCann’s website

Narrative 4, Colum’s nonprofit

Twist, by Colum McCann, his latest novel

Apeirogon, by Colum McCann, a novel about a friendship between an Israeli and a Palestinian

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, a National Book Award-winning novel about the Twin Towers

The new Radio Free Mike virtual bookshop features almost every book mentioned on the podcast, and I earn a small commission if you order from it.

ALSO:

If you’re in Southern California, please come out to “Pub Fiction” this Sunday, July 12, at Knoll’s in Aliso Viejo. I’ll read from a work-in-progress. No reservations necessary.

7pm, 29971 Alicia Pkwy, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

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