“The civil war in Syria is the most catastrophic event of our time, and the most dimly understood. Most journalists won’t go near it. Rania Abouzeid has produced a work of stunning reportage from the very heart of the conflict, daring to go to the most dangerous places in order to get the story. The result is a sensational book that allows us a deeper, and more humane, understanding of this terrible war; it’s a credit to Abouzeid’s bravery and fortitude.”

“Rania Abouzeid has not just written a powerful human story of the most tangled war of our time. This is journalism at its very best: brave; personal; written with aching beauty. She has rewritten history’s first draft with great authority.”

“In No Turning Back, Rania Abouzeid brings you up close and personal to the men and women who led the uprising in Syria. Abouzeid understands these people so well and her writing is so vivid that they practically jump off the page with all their dreams, ideals, and misplaced optimism. After No Turning Back, you won’t be able to hear anything more about Syria without feeling that you too know the people who are living (and dying) through it.”

“Widely recognized as the bravest of reporters… Abouzeid writes with great fluidity and authority about the most important foreign policy and moral crisis of our era. No Turning Back works both on the level of deeply reported personal narratives of a tragedy that continues to unspool and also as a major work of history.”

“No Turning Back stands far above anything I have read about the Syrian war. Rania Abouzeid has produced a masterpiece, weaving together the lives of protesters, victims, and remorseless killers at the center of this century’s most appalling human tragedy. No one else, to my knowledge, has reported this story so bravely or narrated it with such intimacy and power.”

“No Turning Back is a monumental achievement. I can think of few other journalists, past or present, who have reported on any war as courageously, analyzed it as trenchantly, or rendered the lives of its participants and victims as movingly, as Abouzeid has done here for the war in Syria. The book will no doubt endure as a work of literature. But that is incidental. Right now it is an urgent and devastating dispatch from the world as it is.”

“A fabulous and illuminating account of the Syrian conflict told by a world-class journalist at the height of her powers. This is about real people, their real stories and how they web together to tell the wider story of a nation in crisis. A rich and rewarding book that informs, excites and inspires. A truly first-class piece of high-end reportage.”

“Rania Abouzeid has written an intimate portrait of a chaotic war. Her profiles of Syrians caught up in the savage unraveling of the country heightens the tragedy, a lens missing from the news stories. This book is a must read for anyone who has watched the seemingly incomprehensible horror and for policymakers who must try to stop the violence.”

“Weaving together the lives of mothers and sons, fighters and civilians, the oppressors and the oppressed in one epic journey, Rania tells the story of a nation in the grips of revolution and social upheaval. From the initial feeling of hope to the ultimate struggle for survival, this is an essential read not only for those interested in Syria and the Middle East, but for anyone who strives to understand the mechanics of a society torn by civil war.”

“Masterful, intense … Abouzeid’s altogether intimate, revealing, and moving accomplishment is essential to any attempt to understand this tragedy.”

“Harrowing reporting from the front lines of the civil war in Syria. An eye-opening account of those who “played a pivotal role in the revolution’s trajectory.””

“Journalist Rania Abouzeid lets the Syrian people speak for themselves in her sprawling chronicle of the country’s brutal civil war. Abouzeid spent five years undercover to chronicle her subjects’ lives; she had to sneak into the country after being exiled and branded a spy. Her in-depth reporting provides powerful, harrowing context to the headlines about airstrikes and sanctions. Abouzeid has a deep knowledge of the factions and politics fueling the Syrian conflict, but it’s her ground-level snapshots of rallies, raids, and bombings that make No Turning Back so singular and powerful.”

“A brilliant, detailed work on a devastating topic. ”

“[F]inely detailed … a formidable accomplishment.”

“Abouzeid carefully disentangles the significance of complex and shifting political, ethnic and religious identities involved, and provides expert historical and political context, maintaining strict objectivity and taking no sides. … This may be the most intimate and epic account yet for the ongoing tragedy of the Syrian civil war.”

“Indispensable. A masterpiece: a forensic, yet accessible anatomy of how a peaceful uprising was hijacked by external forces who cared less about ridding Syria of dictator Bashar aI-Assad than furthering their own agendas … Abouzeid writes compellingly throughout.”