"Syrian writer and a journalist Samar Yazbek fell foul of the Assad regime and was forced to flee in 2011. Since then, she bravely revisited her homeland by squeezing through a hole in the fence on the Turkish border. She testifies to the appalling reality that is Syria today. From the first innocent demonstrations for democracy, through the beginnings of the Free Syrian Army, to the arrival of ISIS, she offers remarkable snapshots of soldiers, children, and ordinary men and women simply trying to stay alive. Some of these stories are of hardship and brutality that is hard to bear, but she also gives testimony to touches of humanity along the way: how people live under the gaze of a sniper, how principled young men try to resist orders from their military superiors, how children cope in bunkers. Samar Yazbek is the author of the novel Cinnamon; and A Woman in the Crossfire, her diaries of the first four months of the Syrian uprising."--Provided by publisher.