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Hari Prasad, a boatman living by the banks of the Rapti in the plains of Nepal, is saddled with debts and responsibility for his three children and wife. Left with no other option, he seeks employment in the Gulf. After five years of working at a resort in a desert near Dubai, he is able to pay off his loans, reclaim his ancestral land, put his children through school, and return home. But when he witnesses the terror that has crept into everyday life in Nepal due to tensions between the government and Maoist factions, he considers returning to the higher-paying job in Jordan. After reassuring himself and his family of a better future, Hari Prasad leaves—unaware of the fate awaiting him there.

Written with rare sensitivity and a keen understanding of the lives of poor migrant workers, Hostage is the moving story of one of the thousands who flee the social and political upheaval of their country in search of a better life.