In 2014, Aisha Shezadi travels from Norway to Syria with her one-year-old son to join the Islamic State. Soon after, the boy is dead.

Three years later, Aisha shows up in a Kurdish prison camp, stating she is no longer part of ISIS. But she speaks to no one — until Norwegian journalist Kristin Solberg meets her in the camp and gradually gets her to open up about her unique and terrifying experiences inside the Caliphate.
Solberg wants to understand what could drive a young woman to travel halfway across the globe to join a terror group that has the whole world in shock. She gathers stories from eye-witnesses, and people from Aisha’s past and present, resulting in an unprecedented look into the inner workings of the Islamic State. It is also the story of a young woman who made an incomprehensible decision that lead to the death of her first child and a total disruption of the life she knew.

Journalist and writer Kristin Solberg has seen the brutality of the Islamic State up close, and this is also her story. In beautiful, unsparing prose, Solberg narrates the journey from Aisha’s childhood in Norway, through the rise and collapse of the Caliphate, to the Kurdish prison camp where Aisha still resides.