Named a ';Best Book of the Year' by New York Post
';Farida Khalaf's story is harrowing but crucialespecially when it comes to understanding what ISIS actually is and does.' Glamour
';As gripping as it is appallinga compelling testament to the suffering of ordinary people caught up in violence far beyond their controland to the particularly terrible price it exacts from women.' The Guardian
A young Yazidi woman was living a normal, sheltered life in northern Iraq during the summer of 2014 when her entire world was upended: her village was attacked by ISIS. All of the men in her town were killed and the women were taken into slavery.
This is Farida Khalafs story.
In unprecedented detail, Farida describes her world as it wasat nineteen, she was living at home with her brothers and parents, finishing her schooling and looking forward to becoming a math teacherand the hell it became. Held in a slave market in Syria and sold into the homes of several ISIS soldiers, she stubbornly attempts resistance at every turn. Farida is ultimately brought to an ISIS training camp in the middle of the desert, where she plots an against-all-odds escape for herself and five other girls.
A riveting firsthand account of life in captivity and a courageous flight to freedom, this astonishing memoir is also Faridas way of bearing witness, and of ensuring that ISIS does not succeed in crushing her spirit. Her bravery, resilience, and hope in the face of unimaginable violence will fascinate and inspire.
