No Turning Back
Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
New York Times Notable Books of 2018
Financial Times Book of the Year
Award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid presents reportage of unprecedented scope in this engaging, character-driven investigation that exposes the secret dealings that armed and betrayed an uprising.
Taking readers deep into Assad’s prisons, to clandestine meetings and to the highest levels of Islamic militancy, Abouzeid dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict, and lays bare the tragedy of the Syrian War through the stories of those seeking safety and freedom in a shattered country.
Based on more than five years of frontline reporting, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the twenty-first century’s greatest humanitarian disasters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Foreign correspondent Abouzeid spins finely detailed and informed narratives of how life in Bashar al-Assad's Syria descended into street protests and the bloody ongoing chaos of the "civilian revolution." Abouzeid explores the revolt, primarily through the stories of young men who take on the regime, including Suleiman, a wealthy middle manager turned activist; Mohammad, a father imprisoned for suspected Islamist ties and subjected to grisly tortures; and the pseudonymous Abu Azzam, a literature student turned rebel fighter. She also conveys the plight of noncombatants, such as one young girl, Ruha, and her family, who escape to Turkey to become "business-class refugees," out of immediate danger but enduring the hardships of a foreign country while trying to aid those in their hometown across the border. The author skillfully sets forth the complex political and military rivalries between those supporting and opposing the regime, discussing their backers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as the foreign and homegrown fighters who became ISIS. In notes at the beginning and end, Abouzeid details her intense and perilous reporting process. She was banned from the country, she explains, soon after protests began, but nevertheless spent roughly three weeks a month clandestinely entering Syria for the next several years. Her grueling reportage is a formidable accomplishment.
