Girl in the Cellar is true and terrifying story of Natascha Kampusch, a young Austrian girl who was kidnapped at age ten and imprisoned for eight years in a cell beneath the home of her captor. Written by Allan Hall and Michael Leidig, the first journalists to cover this story in meticulous  detail, Girl in a Cellar is the definitive account of the abduction, discovery, and trial that made international headline news—a shocking true account of a young girl’s unspeakable nightmare, not unlike those suffered by Elisabeth Fritzl in Austria and Alisha Martinez in Colorado.

On March 2, 1998, while on her way to school, ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was abducted. More than eight years later, on August 23, 2006, she escaped with a story that shocked and horrified the entire world. She spent the most delicate years of her life hidden in a cellar underneath an ordinary Austrian suburban home. How was she able to survive? What sort of woman had emerged? What kind of man was Wolfgang Priklopil, her abductor—and what demands had he made of her?

As the days and weeks passed, and Natascha's only TV interview failed to quell the world's curiosity, the questions began to multiply: What exactly was the relationship between the abductor and the hostage? Why had Natascha waited so long to make her bid for freedom when it seemed she had earlier opportunities to do so? Did Natascha's parents know Priklopil before he kidnapped their daughter?

Allan Hall and Michael Leidig have covered the story from the first days of the ten-year-old's disappearance, interviewing police investigators, lawyers, psychiatrists, Priklopil's coworkers and the family members closest to Natascha. A work of extraordinary investigative reporting, Girl in the Cellar gets to the heart of this very tragic case to reveal a truth no one would have imagined.