Merriam Webster's Pocket Thesaurus

Malika Oufkir is the daughter of General Muhammad Oufkir, the most important army officer to serve under King Hassan II of Morocco. When she was five, Hassan's father, King Muhammad V, took a fancy to her, and summoned her to live in his palace as a companion to his children. Devastated by separation from her own family, the child gradually became accustomed to life with the King who - despite whipping her until the blood ran down her back for indifferent school work - was by his own standards amiable. When Hassan succeeded to the throne she was as well treated as his forty concubines and was eventually allowed to go home. In 1972 Makika's father took part in a failed assassination attempt on the life of Hassan, who sukmmarily executed him and arrested his family. They remained in prison for 18 years, enduring fearful privations, until they succeeded in digging their way out of prison. The family found few people willing to take responsibility for helping them, and were re-arrested; but the publicity their case received in the West resulted in a less cruel incarceration, and eventually in their release. The story is intelligently and coolly told, which makes it all the more powerful as an indictment of a monarch thoroughly wedded to the most unjust and barbaric customs. It also has a happy ending: Malika is now settled into a happy domestic life, but she no longer lives in Morocco. (Kirkus UK)