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Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution
From Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist Anand Gopal, a mesmerizing and powerful account of six Syrians fighting for a better world, in the tradition of classic works by Philip Gourevitch and Katherine Boo.
In 2011, in a northern Syrian city, a small group of men and women began a movement that overthrew one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships. For the next eighteen months, citizens of Manbij carried out one of the most remarkable experiments in democracy in modern times.
Days of Love and Rage details the powerfully intimate narratives of men and women who led this struggle, and who experience the highs of camaraderie and the lows of a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, a worker who risks everything for the dream of equality.
Anand Gopal immerses you in the world of a single city in the throes of revolution, and lays bare the danger that inequality poses to democracy. But this book transcends the particulars of one terrible conflict to tell the sweeping story of democracy and rising authoritarianism in our times. It is, above all, an account of the best and worst of humanity. Both tragic and inspiring, Days of Love and Rage is a story of our enduring human need for freedom, security, dignity, community, love, and hope.
In 2011, in a northern Syrian city, a small group of men and women began a movement that overthrew one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships. For the next eighteen months, citizens of Manbij carried out one of the most remarkable experiments in democracy in modern times.
Days of Love and Rage details the powerfully intimate narratives of men and women who led this struggle, and who experience the highs of camaraderie and the lows of a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, a worker who risks everything for the dream of equality.
Anand Gopal immerses you in the world of a single city in the throes of revolution, and lays bare the danger that inequality poses to democracy. But this book transcends the particulars of one terrible conflict to tell the sweeping story of democracy and rising authoritarianism in our times. It is, above all, an account of the best and worst of humanity. Both tragic and inspiring, Days of Love and Rage is a story of our enduring human need for freedom, security, dignity, community, love, and hope.
592 pages, Hardcover
Published March 3, 2026
21 people are currently reading
963 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 18, 2026
Every so often one comes in contact with a piece of human creation that is immediately recognizable as a masterpiece. This is one of those moments. "Days of Love and Rage" chronicles the tortuous journey of the ordinary citizens of Manbij, Syria from 2011 to 2025 as they bravely pursue the right to govern themselves.
First, they risk their lives to remove the Assad regime and establish a democratically-run city state. That successful effort is subsequently weakened by conflict over policy objectives and schisms between local leaders. Frustration and discordance enable ISIS to slowly take over the city and subsume Manbij into its caliphate. Citizens continue to rebel, setting the stage for the removal of ISIS by U.S.-backed forces, albeit at a tremendous loss of life and infrastructure.
This is a saga of humans facing torture, imprisonment, loss of livelihood, loss of family, and death for democracy and the principles of liberalism. Through 2,000 interviews along with text and video records, Gopal gives the reader a front row seat to common people doing unimaginably brave things.
First, they risk their lives to remove the Assad regime and establish a democratically-run city state. That successful effort is subsequently weakened by conflict over policy objectives and schisms between local leaders. Frustration and discordance enable ISIS to slowly take over the city and subsume Manbij into its caliphate. Citizens continue to rebel, setting the stage for the removal of ISIS by U.S.-backed forces, albeit at a tremendous loss of life and infrastructure.
This is a saga of humans facing torture, imprisonment, loss of livelihood, loss of family, and death for democracy and the principles of liberalism. Through 2,000 interviews along with text and video records, Gopal gives the reader a front row seat to common people doing unimaginably brave things.
February 27, 2026
Books that show the true side of what people have gone through, stories that may not have been heard before are heartwrenching. This was peoples real lives and history. There are so many individuals focused on in this book which got very confusing for me to try to remember who was who and what was whose story, but given that ALL of these people connect at some point and everyone’s stories are essential for others stories I understand that this is how the book had to be laid out. It’s always sad to see the terrible things people have gone through. I can only imagine how scary it must have been to be living in Syria at this time. The descriptions were so upsetting because this was peoples lives. And the fact that the effects of all that happened are still there today. This book was very sharp and hard hitting.
I was hoping for a happy ending as i got closer to completing the book. But real life and where we are now does not usually have happy endings.
This book contains so much research and it was all done with so much care. As you read you can feel the effort and importance put on this work to display what happened in a truthful light.
I was hoping for a happy ending as i got closer to completing the book. But real life and where we are now does not usually have happy endings.
This book contains so much research and it was all done with so much care. As you read you can feel the effort and importance put on this work to display what happened in a truthful light.
March 4, 2026
This is a nonfiction masterpiece from one of the finest journalists working today.
"Days of Love and Rage" is about the Syrian Civil War in the same way that "Animal Farm" is about cows and ducks. The book is deeply rooted in a certain place and time, to be sure, but its story illuminates deep and universal questions about democracy, human society, freedom, and class struggle. Anand Gopal has travelled the world and witnessed hardship and conflict at its worst. This book is clearly the distillation of the hard wisdom he has gleaned through the experience.
The story itself unfolds with the energy of a great novel. We meet extraordinary people who are rendered with the care and detail of great literature. There is Abdul Os, a striving Kurdish shop owner who becomes a community leader; Hasan Nefi, the poet and revolutionary who suffers in a dungeon; Oday al-Hema, an ambitious and restless young Syrian who can't seem to accept the world as it is; and Mina Saba, a woman oppressed by a world of "honor" who makes the shattering decision to join protests during the Arab Spring.
These stories are intertwined in the city of Manbij, a place that comes alive with the narrative strength of Dickens' London. Manbij is a place of tradition and order, until the arrival of the Syrian revolution. Gopal tells the remarkable story of Manbij over several years as its citizens defy an authoritarian ruler, form a democratic society, and then fall under the power of theocratic tyranny.
The story here is timeless, the story of how people struggle to manifest that thing we call "freedom" through the messy construction of committees, revolutionary councils and civic groups. Gopal's telling of the story is studded with insights that stop you cold, insights that feel not only relevant to our moment, but urgent. The first revolutionary council of Manbij, for example, is run by upper-class professionals who seem immune to the pressing needs of the poor. "As its first act, the body pledged not to tackle (rising) prices but to 'restore the beauty and charm of our streets' by hiring street cleaners," Gopal writes. It sounded like a post-mortem of a recent American presidential election. The events that followed in Majbij were chillingly resonant as well.
The writing here is nothing short of poetic. Describing the pain of families whose loved ones disappeared in the war—whether to prison camps or combat—Gopal writes: "The missing were legion. Their presence, in their perpetual absence, loomed over daily life, like a huge army encampment outside town, just past the hills, beyond the reach of ordinary mortals."
We are lucky to have this monumental work from such an important writer. This is the kind of book that comes along once a decade, at best. It will certainly be read for decades to come.
"Days of Love and Rage" is about the Syrian Civil War in the same way that "Animal Farm" is about cows and ducks. The book is deeply rooted in a certain place and time, to be sure, but its story illuminates deep and universal questions about democracy, human society, freedom, and class struggle. Anand Gopal has travelled the world and witnessed hardship and conflict at its worst. This book is clearly the distillation of the hard wisdom he has gleaned through the experience.
The story itself unfolds with the energy of a great novel. We meet extraordinary people who are rendered with the care and detail of great literature. There is Abdul Os, a striving Kurdish shop owner who becomes a community leader; Hasan Nefi, the poet and revolutionary who suffers in a dungeon; Oday al-Hema, an ambitious and restless young Syrian who can't seem to accept the world as it is; and Mina Saba, a woman oppressed by a world of "honor" who makes the shattering decision to join protests during the Arab Spring.
These stories are intertwined in the city of Manbij, a place that comes alive with the narrative strength of Dickens' London. Manbij is a place of tradition and order, until the arrival of the Syrian revolution. Gopal tells the remarkable story of Manbij over several years as its citizens defy an authoritarian ruler, form a democratic society, and then fall under the power of theocratic tyranny.
The story here is timeless, the story of how people struggle to manifest that thing we call "freedom" through the messy construction of committees, revolutionary councils and civic groups. Gopal's telling of the story is studded with insights that stop you cold, insights that feel not only relevant to our moment, but urgent. The first revolutionary council of Manbij, for example, is run by upper-class professionals who seem immune to the pressing needs of the poor. "As its first act, the body pledged not to tackle (rising) prices but to 'restore the beauty and charm of our streets' by hiring street cleaners," Gopal writes. It sounded like a post-mortem of a recent American presidential election. The events that followed in Majbij were chillingly resonant as well.
The writing here is nothing short of poetic. Describing the pain of families whose loved ones disappeared in the war—whether to prison camps or combat—Gopal writes: "The missing were legion. Their presence, in their perpetual absence, loomed over daily life, like a huge army encampment outside town, just past the hills, beyond the reach of ordinary mortals."
We are lucky to have this monumental work from such an important writer. This is the kind of book that comes along once a decade, at best. It will certainly be read for decades to come.
March 19, 2026
I'm so glad that I took my time reading and annotating this. Reading is my favorite way to learn about other places. I've never read anything out of Syria and I was pretty ignorant to everything that happened there. The revolution kicked off as I was just graduating high school and going to college. I missed all of this at the time and I don't remember any reporting on it while I was in school. it's only recently that I began hearing about Syria (2023, maybe?).
Anand did a great job of making this non-fiction feel like storytelling. A lot of this story is brutal, and I found myself relating heavily to the anger Abdul Hadi, Oday, Abel Os, Mira, and so many others were feeling. it's wild to me how universal some of our issues can be: the elites dominating the "fickle masses", class structure, etc. Even in this country (The US) that sees itself as so superior, the people who are impoverished, struggling, etc are often ignored or demonized. I felt myself loving these complete strangers and feeling understood. I found myself angry for them in what they were going through at the hands of the regime and outside forces. I found myself completely understanding how many fell into ISIS' grasp and feeling the betrayal when ISIS finally revealed it's real goals.
Now, America...I'm aware of our imperial history (and present). I found myself so disappointed, but not at all surprised about the indifference, the casual cruelty, the brutal drone bombings at the command of a president I admired. The older I get, the more I learn and the angrier I become.
What this book ultimately taught me was what being in community means. Oday...his hope is the same hope that I feel. Mira's distrust is also the same as mine.
I don't need to relate to these people in order to care about them and their plight. It just matters to me that they are human. Anand did a great job of capturing these people. The work that went into this (nearly a decade and thousands of interviews)...gaining trusts, navigating some dangerous situations, maintaining integrity, amassing a team of the people involved in the revolution to help him tell their stories, gathering the social media posts (this was one of the first revolutions to be posted on social media) ...the effort showed.
My only con was length, but that wasn't enough to take off any stars.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster + NetGalley for the eARC. This review is late as hell because it took me two weeks to get through this. It was all of the annotating and studying I did because of this story.
Anand did a great job of making this non-fiction feel like storytelling. A lot of this story is brutal, and I found myself relating heavily to the anger Abdul Hadi, Oday, Abel Os, Mira, and so many others were feeling. it's wild to me how universal some of our issues can be: the elites dominating the "fickle masses", class structure, etc. Even in this country (The US) that sees itself as so superior, the people who are impoverished, struggling, etc are often ignored or demonized. I felt myself loving these complete strangers and feeling understood. I found myself angry for them in what they were going through at the hands of the regime and outside forces. I found myself completely understanding how many fell into ISIS' grasp and feeling the betrayal when ISIS finally revealed it's real goals.
Now, America...I'm aware of our imperial history (and present). I found myself so disappointed, but not at all surprised about the indifference, the casual cruelty, the brutal drone bombings at the command of a president I admired. The older I get, the more I learn and the angrier I become.
What this book ultimately taught me was what being in community means. Oday...his hope is the same hope that I feel. Mira's distrust is also the same as mine.
I don't need to relate to these people in order to care about them and their plight. It just matters to me that they are human. Anand did a great job of capturing these people. The work that went into this (nearly a decade and thousands of interviews)...gaining trusts, navigating some dangerous situations, maintaining integrity, amassing a team of the people involved in the revolution to help him tell their stories, gathering the social media posts (this was one of the first revolutions to be posted on social media) ...the effort showed.
My only con was length, but that wasn't enough to take off any stars.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster + NetGalley for the eARC. This review is late as hell because it took me two weeks to get through this. It was all of the annotating and studying I did because of this story.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is a long book (almost 600 pages) and not for the faint of heart both for its length and the gripping story of a country’s struggle for freedom (not always pretty but authentic in the telling). It’s an authoritative and important read.
Spanning from 2011 to 2024, the book tells the story of the people who rose up in Syria to gain their freedom from the despotic authoritarian government of Bashar Al-Assad. Centered in Manjib, a city of ordinary people, the book is inspiring in its story of those who rose up against Al-Assad and the Islamic revolutionaries. In chronological order, the book tells of all the things these citizens did to counter the awfulness of these governments. Frankly at times I thought I was reading about Minneapolis and ICE actions in this country.
The author tells the story of several residents in Manjib (a list of all can be found the end of the book). He and local researchers conducted over 2000 interviews in developing this portrait. (Be sure to read the methodology sections at the end of the book.). This look into the intimate and painful moments of ordinary people engaged in a fight for freedom is painful at times to read but also eye opening in the importance freedom means to people.
It was very inspiring to read what people did - like elect a council to organize protests. As one reviewer pointed out this act of journalism yields an “important account of an uprising that shook the Middle East.” It also as stated in the book shows how tyranny is a threat to democracy but inequality is what destroys democracy - an incredibly prescient statement in these times.
If you are interested in history, in the Middle East or just learning more about makes people yearn to be free, this book is for you.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for allowing me to read this ARC.
Spanning from 2011 to 2024, the book tells the story of the people who rose up in Syria to gain their freedom from the despotic authoritarian government of Bashar Al-Assad. Centered in Manjib, a city of ordinary people, the book is inspiring in its story of those who rose up against Al-Assad and the Islamic revolutionaries. In chronological order, the book tells of all the things these citizens did to counter the awfulness of these governments. Frankly at times I thought I was reading about Minneapolis and ICE actions in this country.
The author tells the story of several residents in Manjib (a list of all can be found the end of the book). He and local researchers conducted over 2000 interviews in developing this portrait. (Be sure to read the methodology sections at the end of the book.). This look into the intimate and painful moments of ordinary people engaged in a fight for freedom is painful at times to read but also eye opening in the importance freedom means to people.
It was very inspiring to read what people did - like elect a council to organize protests. As one reviewer pointed out this act of journalism yields an “important account of an uprising that shook the Middle East.” It also as stated in the book shows how tyranny is a threat to democracy but inequality is what destroys democracy - an incredibly prescient statement in these times.
If you are interested in history, in the Middle East or just learning more about makes people yearn to be free, this book is for you.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for allowing me to read this ARC.
Did not finish
March 5, 2026I received this ARC in exchange for a review. I unfortunately DNF’d it. This has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my reading taste and the amount of information I can digest. I read 426 pages and realized I could not keep up with what was happening and what it means in the greater context of Syrian history.
Some context on me as a reader- I rarely read nonfiction but I enjoy historical fiction and I enjoy memoirs so I thought I would try at Days of Love and Rage. I did not realize it would be 592 pages….
Even with the high page count that I wasn’t mentally prepared for, these stories captured me as they are filled with resilience and a horrific look at the Syrian regimes. Unfortunately, I think some pre-reading may be required on the history of Syria up until the point of the revolutions. I felt a bit lost contextually until we are following the stories of the revolutionaries.
I was unable to follow all of the people we meet in the story. It was difficult to discern who to try to remember as they will come up again, or if they’re involved just in the current sentence.
Personally I would have loved a version of this that’s a bit shorter for my understanding, as I have no previous background in reading or learning about Syria.
Now despite this, my attention was held as the storytelling and writing are so compelling. I think that anyone who is interested should pick this book up and learn as much as they can from it. It’s easy to read and hold an attention span, and I’m sure readers who are comfortable with historical non-fiction would love this writing and story telling.
Some context on me as a reader- I rarely read nonfiction but I enjoy historical fiction and I enjoy memoirs so I thought I would try at Days of Love and Rage. I did not realize it would be 592 pages….
Even with the high page count that I wasn’t mentally prepared for, these stories captured me as they are filled with resilience and a horrific look at the Syrian regimes. Unfortunately, I think some pre-reading may be required on the history of Syria up until the point of the revolutions. I felt a bit lost contextually until we are following the stories of the revolutionaries.
I was unable to follow all of the people we meet in the story. It was difficult to discern who to try to remember as they will come up again, or if they’re involved just in the current sentence.
Personally I would have loved a version of this that’s a bit shorter for my understanding, as I have no previous background in reading or learning about Syria.
Now despite this, my attention was held as the storytelling and writing are so compelling. I think that anyone who is interested should pick this book up and learn as much as they can from it. It’s easy to read and hold an attention span, and I’m sure readers who are comfortable with historical non-fiction would love this writing and story telling.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
There is something about great books which lead me to sounding truly pretentious in my reviews. I want to avoid cliches like that the book is powerful, astonishing, or important. However, I run into books like Days of Love and Rage by Anand Gopal which defy me not to call it all these things. Gopal has written something that cannot be done by every author. It is painstakingly researched, beautifully written, but somehow very grounded. It is dense, challenging, but as close to a page turner as something like this could be. It is, in a word, a masterpiece.
The narrative follows various characters in the city of Manbij, Syria during the Syrian Civil War. Gopal keeps his story focused on the street level of the war as much as possible. While Gopal will give the reader an idea of what is happening around Syria, Manbij is where the vast majority of the events take place. He draws the reader in by introducing his characters in mundane ways. There is the boy who falls in love with the girl down the street. There is the poet who is just finding his voice or the woman who doesn't know she'll ever be allowed to have one. The opening of the book truly feels like the beginning of a novel. Then, of course, the resistance begins and things are going to get messy, violent, and unclear.
Gopal's tone throughout the narrative is one of journalistic objectivity. You can feel his emotion by what he chooses to present to the reader. He is clearly pulling for his subjects to be the best version of themselves, but he will not hide their sometimes significant shortcomings, either. One man, in particular, ranges from righteous revolutionary, to ISIS criminal, to outcast. Throughout, you live and die with these people as they just try to define what freedom is and how to keep it once you have it.
No one is ever going to ask me to hand out awards for writing. However, if this book doesn't win every single thing it is up for, then they don't matter anyway.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Simon & Schuster.)
The narrative follows various characters in the city of Manbij, Syria during the Syrian Civil War. Gopal keeps his story focused on the street level of the war as much as possible. While Gopal will give the reader an idea of what is happening around Syria, Manbij is where the vast majority of the events take place. He draws the reader in by introducing his characters in mundane ways. There is the boy who falls in love with the girl down the street. There is the poet who is just finding his voice or the woman who doesn't know she'll ever be allowed to have one. The opening of the book truly feels like the beginning of a novel. Then, of course, the resistance begins and things are going to get messy, violent, and unclear.
Gopal's tone throughout the narrative is one of journalistic objectivity. You can feel his emotion by what he chooses to present to the reader. He is clearly pulling for his subjects to be the best version of themselves, but he will not hide their sometimes significant shortcomings, either. One man, in particular, ranges from righteous revolutionary, to ISIS criminal, to outcast. Throughout, you live and die with these people as they just try to define what freedom is and how to keep it once you have it.
No one is ever going to ask me to hand out awards for writing. However, if this book doesn't win every single thing it is up for, then they don't matter anyway.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Simon & Schuster.)
March 18, 2026
Personally, I love history and learning the different narratives so this book was perfection for me. The stories of the different people showed a comparable world and vision of hope. I appreciated the format of the book, it made it easy to remember who the perspective was from and to realize the connection between them.
This was a great resource to learn about Syria and more current events related to the revolution and happenings. Overall, I would recommend for someone into learning about culture, history, and/or opening your mind to view a different world perspective.
This was a great resource to learn about Syria and more current events related to the revolution and happenings. Overall, I would recommend for someone into learning about culture, history, and/or opening your mind to view a different world perspective.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you Simon and Schuster for sending me a free advance copy!
4.5 stars
DAYS OF LOVE AND RAGE is a nonfiction book worth checking out as it covers what’s been going on in Syria for the last couple decades. For many of us in the Western world, we don’t realize the true extent of how Syrians were affected by the dictatorship and the revolution that followed. This book provided great insight as it features 6 Syrians who became involved in the movement. Putting their lives at risk with the hope it would lead to a better Syria, one centered on equality.
A heartbreaking but powerful and important read. Nonfiction writing at its best as you take notice of this country and the plight of its citizens. Highly recommend.
4.5 stars
DAYS OF LOVE AND RAGE is a nonfiction book worth checking out as it covers what’s been going on in Syria for the last couple decades. For many of us in the Western world, we don’t realize the true extent of how Syrians were affected by the dictatorship and the revolution that followed. This book provided great insight as it features 6 Syrians who became involved in the movement. Putting their lives at risk with the hope it would lead to a better Syria, one centered on equality.
A heartbreaking but powerful and important read. Nonfiction writing at its best as you take notice of this country and the plight of its citizens. Highly recommend.
March 15, 2026
4.25⭐️
I thought it was good, but more historical context and backstory would’ve been helpful at the start because I had no idea where we were or why we were there until basically the last 200 pages
I thought it was good, but more historical context and backstory would’ve been helpful at the start because I had no idea where we were or why we were there until basically the last 200 pages
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews