War in Syria: Stories of Survival and Hope

A reporter follows a group of Syrians from all sides of the war—fighters, students, children—and their struggles to survive the conflict.

By Simon Worrall
PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2018

“War arrives suddenly, uninvited, and brings with it a new normal,” writes Rania Abouzeid in No Turning Back, her poignant account of the Syrian conflict. Following the lives of a group of people from rebel-held areas over a period of five years, she brings home to us what television coverage rarely can: the human dimension of one of the most violent and complicated conflicts since World War II.

Speaking from her U.K. publisher’s office in London, she explains how children learn the vocabulary, and sounds, of war; how the CIA armed rebel groups and used them to spy on jihadists; and why she believes the West should be providing more humanitarian aid to Syrians.