The Fire: Voices of a Generation in Iran, Ukraine, & Afghanistan
ISBN
Publisher
Imprint
Year Published
Print Length
Format
SKU
9798889661504
Europa Editions
N/A
2025
208 pages
Paperback
25584
Original price was: ₨5,150.00.₨1,200.00Current price is: ₨1,200.00.
A powerful, unflinching portrait of a generation fighting for change in Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine
Description
“Sala’s dispatches are as immersive and original as they are anthropologically probing… [They] come alive in ways that ordinary newspaper journalism rarely does.”—The New York Times Book Review
In The Fire, acclaimed journalist Cecilia Sala takes readers on a gripping journey through some of the world’s most volatile regions, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Through the eyes of young people like Kateryna, a Ukrainian soldier; Assim, an Iranian student at the forefront of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests; Nabila, a Muslim kickboxing champion and lesbian; and Zarifa, a political activist in Afghanistan, Sala offers an intimate portrayal of lives caught amidst turmoil and fighting for a better life.
By immersing herself in their worlds—in their daily lives and political battles—Sala crafts a poignant narrative that captures the human dimension of some of the world’s most intense conflicts. The Fire is a testament to the courage and hunger for freedom of a generation at the forefront of global change.
“This is essential reading for understanding the present.”—Il Messaggero
Praise and Reviews
“Marie Colvin... used to say that her calling was to write about ‘humanity in extremis.’ As Sala makes clear in The Fire... she is a worthy successor to that noble pursuit. Her dispatches are as immersive and original as they are anthropologically probing... Sala intersperses these fascinating mini-profiles with facts about life in the countries she visits that make them come alive in ways that ordinary newspaper journalism rarely does.”—Ruth Margalit, The New York Times Book Review
“What the stories in The Fire have in common is the age of their protagonists, all in their twenties and thirties—young people coming of age while the world around them is in flames… This is essential reading for understanding the present.”—Il Messaggero
“A choral reportage that starts from the personal stories of these twenty-something men and women and, following their gaze, broadens the story to the geopolitical context in which protests, wars, and rebellions have erupted.”—Rivista Blam
“The only hope left lies with the younger generations; they are the only ones who still have a vision and can recount the story of our planet without prejudices. Cecilia Sala, journalist and war correspondent in her twenties, does precisely that, with great skill and passion, in her extraordinary book The Fire.”—Io Donna
About the Author
Cecilia Sala is a journalist, war correspondent, and podcaster. Her reporting has appeared in L’Espresso, Vanity Fair, and Wired. She has covered crises in Venezuela, protests in Chile, Iran, the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, and the war in Ukraine. On December 19, 2024, she was arrested in Tehran by the Iranian regime and held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, where she remained for three weeks before being released. Soon after been freed, she returned to reporting from the field, continuing to cover global conflicts and political upheavals.
Oonagh Stransky has been a translator of Italian literature for over twenty years. Some of the writers whose work she has brought into English include Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lucarelli, Giuseppe Pontiggia, and Roberto Saviano. Stransky studied Italian at Middlebury Language Schools, received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Mills College and UC Berkeley in 1989, and her M.A. in Italian from Columbia University in 2002. She currently lives in Italy. Her translation of Domenico Starnone’s The House on Via Gemito was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and for the American Literary Translators Association 2024 Italian Prose in Translation Award.
The Fire: Voices of a Generation in Iran, Ukraine, & Afghanistan
A powerful, unflinching portrait of a generation fighting for change in Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine
Description
“Sala’s dispatches are as immersive and original as they are anthropologically probing... [They] come alive in ways that ordinary newspaper journalism rarely does.”—The New York Times Book Review
In The Fire, acclaimed journalist Cecilia Sala takes readers on a gripping journey through some of the world’s most volatile regions, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Through the eyes of young people like Kateryna, a Ukrainian soldier; Assim, an Iranian student at the forefront of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests; Nabila, a Muslim kickboxing champion and lesbian; and Zarifa, a political activist in Afghanistan, Sala offers an intimate portrayal of lives caught amidst turmoil and fighting for a better life.
By immersing herself in their worlds—in their daily lives and political battles—Sala crafts a poignant narrative that captures the human dimension of some of the world’s most intense conflicts. The Fire is a testament to the courage and hunger for freedom of a generation at the forefront of global change.
“This is essential reading for understanding the present.”—Il Messaggero
Praise and Reviews
“Marie Colvin... used to say that her calling was to write about ‘humanity in extremis.’ As Sala makes clear in The Fire... she is a worthy successor to that noble pursuit. Her dispatches are as immersive and original as they are anthropologically probing... Sala intersperses these fascinating mini-profiles with facts about life in the countries she visits that make them come alive in ways that ordinary newspaper journalism rarely does.”—Ruth Margalit, The New York Times Book Review
“What the stories in The Fire have in common is the age of their protagonists, all in their twenties and thirties—young people coming of age while the world around them is in flames… This is essential reading for understanding the present.”—Il Messaggero
“A choral reportage that starts from the personal stories of these twenty-something men and women and, following their gaze, broadens the story to the geopolitical context in which protests, wars, and rebellions have erupted.”—Rivista Blam
“The only hope left lies with the younger generations; they are the only ones who still have a vision and can recount the story of our planet without prejudices. Cecilia Sala, journalist and war correspondent in her twenties, does precisely that, with great skill and passion, in her extraordinary book The Fire.”—Io Donna
About the Author
Cecilia Sala is a journalist, war correspondent, and podcaster. Her reporting has appeared in L’Espresso, Vanity Fair, and Wired. She has covered crises in Venezuela, protests in Chile, Iran, the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, and the war in Ukraine. On December 19, 2024, she was arrested in Tehran by the Iranian regime and held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, where she remained for three weeks before being released. Soon after been freed, she returned to reporting from the field, continuing to cover global conflicts and political upheavals.
Oonagh Stransky has been a translator of Italian literature for over twenty years. Some of the writers whose work she has brought into English include Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lucarelli, Giuseppe Pontiggia, and Roberto Saviano. Stransky studied Italian at Middlebury Language Schools, received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Mills College and UC Berkeley in 1989, and her M.A. in Italian from Columbia University in 2002. She currently lives in Italy. Her translation of Domenico Starnone’s The House on Via Gemito was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and for the American Literary Translators Association 2024 Italian Prose in Translation Award.