No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
by Rania Abouzeid
On This Page
Description
This astonishing book by the prize-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid tells the tragedy of the Syrian War through the dramatic stories of four young people seeking safety and freedom in a shattered country. Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos show more of the protests online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest. When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The regime's brutal response disrupted a family in Idlib province, where a nine-year-old girl opened the door to a military raid that caused her father to flee. As the bombings increased and roads grew more dangerous, these people's lives intertwined in unexpected ways. Rania Abouzeid brings readers deep inside Assad's prisons, to covert meetings where foreign states and organizations manipulated the rebels, and to the highest levels of Islamic militancy and the formation of ISIS. Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the twenty-first century's greatest humanitarian disasters. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A fascinating, grisly book on the war in Syria up to the publication date of 2018. This was no dry history, but a fast-paced story with interesting characters, a story that often read like fiction. Much of the drama was from her own eye-witness accounts and much of it from interviews later.
This was my first real picture of Bashar al-Assad's chaotic opposition -- not just one group, but many factions of opponents, all wanting to control the country after the dictator was toppled. There were college-age revolutionaries who, though Islamic, wanted a secular government, and many Islamist factions, including al-Queda and ISIS, who fought with and killed each other. And so many civilians caught in the cross-fire and bombings.
The war in Syria show more has disappeared from the news but is, apparently, not over. Now I'll need to find a book that covers post-2018.
The book has a pretty good map of Syria, though it sometimes helped to consult Google Maps.
Highly recommended! show less
This was my first real picture of Bashar al-Assad's chaotic opposition -- not just one group, but many factions of opponents, all wanting to control the country after the dictator was toppled. There were college-age revolutionaries who, though Islamic, wanted a secular government, and many Islamist factions, including al-Queda and ISIS, who fought with and killed each other. And so many civilians caught in the cross-fire and bombings.
The war in Syria show more has disappeared from the news but is, apparently, not over. Now I'll need to find a book that covers post-2018.
The book has a pretty good map of Syria, though it sometimes helped to consult Google Maps.
Highly recommended! show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
3 Works 228 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Middle East; Syria
- Important events
- Syrian Civil War
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 151
- Popularity
- 215,846
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
