Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 Yazidi villages have been targets for persecution for centuries, and Kocho was no different. The Yazidis were constantly being pulled between the competing forces of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds, who wanted them to deny their Yazidi heritage and conform to Kurdish or Arab identities.

#2 The rest of Iraq was outside of Kocho, and in peacetime, it would take a Yazidi merchant 15 minutes to drive from Kocho to the nearest Sunni village to sell his grain or milk. But when there was fighting in Iraq, those villages loomed over us, their smaller Yazidi neighbor, and old prejudice hardened easily into hatred.

#3 The Yazidis were eventually saved when the two farmers they had kidnapped escaped through a broken window, ran through the barley fields, and showed up at home, alive. But the kidnappings didn’t stop.

#4 The day after Dishan was taken, Kocho was in chaos. Villagers huddled in front of their doors, and along with men who took turns manning a new checkpoint just beyond the village walls, they watched for any unfamiliar cars coming through Kocho.