Days of Love and Rage, Anand Gopal
Days of Love and Rage, Anand Gopal
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

Days of Love and Rage
A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution

Author: Anand Gopal

Narrator: Ali Andre Ali

Unabridged: 22 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2026

Synopsis

“This story of ordinary Syrians who fought tyranny is a masterpiece.” —The New York Times Book Review

From Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist Anand Gopal, an epic and enthralling 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 a brutal dictatorship. For the next eighteen months, many of the 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 the men and women who led this struggle, and who experienced the highs of camaraderie and the lows of betrayal. Among them: a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, and 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 broader story of rising authoritarianism in our times. Days of Love and Rage has the force, sweep, and artistry of a great novel, and is ultimately a story of our enduring human need for dignity and hope.

About Anand Gopal

Anand Gopal is a writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of No Good Men Among the Living and writes about democracy, inequality, and conflict.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cheyanne on February 26, 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 w......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on March 04, 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 un......more

Goodreads review by Janine on February 03, 2026

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......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on February 26, 2026

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......more

Goodreads review by Maggie on 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 con......more

Quotes

“There have been many books about Syria since the earliest days of unrest in 2011, but...  Gopal’s account is destined to stand out as the definitive text of the war.”
—New York Times Book Review

“An awesome feat of reporting and storytelling. Gopal has managed to distill a sweeping history of the Syrian revolution into a tale that is rousing, vivid, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.”
—Patrick Radden Keefe, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the bestseller Empire of Pain

“A sweeping tour-de-force of investigative journalism”
—Time Magazine

“Days of Love and Rage is an astonishing book about the limits of fear, the way obsession with one value can mutate into a kind of tyranny, and the struggle to find logic and meaning in history and in personal sacrifice. It is also a riveting portrait of a community of remarkable people who managed to remain open to the world, even as it closed in on them. It’s hard for me to imagine a better work of nonfiction than this.”
—Rachel Aviv, New York Times bestselling author of Strangers to Ourselves

"Anand Gopal is one of the great war reporters of our age. Rather than writing about the politicians and generals driving the wars, Gopal writes with great knowledge and empathy about the lives of ordinary people who were thrust into extraordinary circumstances."
—Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst and author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

"Remarkable ...This book is not only about the Syrian revolution. It is a profound meditation on human nature, resilience, and faith. Gopal brings to life the stories of Syrians whose political imagination, fearless actions, and astonishing courage, reveal the depths of human solidarity and sacrifice in pursuit of a better world. As Days of Love and Rage so compellingly reminds us, hope itself can be an act of resistance."
—Emma Sky OBE, author of The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq

 "If you want to understand the Syrian war not as a geopolitical abstraction but as a human quest for liberty, Days of Love and Rage is a powerful guide."
—Apple Books

"Brave, inventive reporting yields an important account of an uprising that shook the Middle East."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List