Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
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The Kite Runner and
The Swallows of Kabul for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this moving, slim, profound novel illuminates the plight of those living under the Islamic State as well as the spirit of the Yazidi people.
Nazo Heydo has drenched herself in kerosene in order to self-immolate, to avoid marrying the Syrian elder who bought her from Islamic State officials. Her forced marriage is just the latest horror in a journey that began when ISIS fighters surrounded her peaceful village, demanding spoils and the Yazidis' conversion to Islam. Rebuffed, they took away her father, brothers, and the love of her life in their pickup trucks with the other village men. The women and children they enslaved and separated, transporting the younger women to be trafficked as sex slaves or sold. Only Nazo's wits and daring have saved her from further abuse or death, yet each escape leads to some other horror. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative, Soz, another young Yazidi, flees her family's farm when she sees the white pickups approach. She manages to reach Mount Sinjar, where she joins the Yazidi fighters who have allied with the Kurdish Peshmerga. Her journey will lead back to her homeland to do battle against the black flag of ISIS.