Rojava and the Kurdish army have been in the news since shortly after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, but there have been very few books about or profiles of Rojava and their efforts. Long Shot will tell the important, previously untold story of the rebel army that defeated ISIS, giving voice to a group of people who are often silent in our media. Azad spent two years in the ranks of the Kurdish militias, fighting on the front lines in the army's sniper unit. Never before have we had accounts from Kurdish soldiers with on the ground experience. Azad and two of his closest comrades were together responsible for taking down about 1,000 ISIS fighters, which was about 10% of ISIS's forces. Out of the three men, Azad is the only one who survived; his two comrades died on the battlefield. Long Shot is a dramatic and captivating war story; a depiction of what it was like to fight ISIS up close. Azad describes at length the tactics and mechanics of sniping, and takes us through the harrowing, 9-month-long war between the Kurdish army and ISIS battle by battle.

This is the first detailed account of the battle of Kobani, a major victory for the Kurds that facilitated the ultimate defeat of ISIS. The story of Rojava and their fight for freedom is also a story of progressive political ideals that will astonish and inspire Western readers. When the Kurds occupied Rojava, they began to build an autonomous state based on principles of democracy and gender equality--a tolerant, liberal sanctuary amidst oppressive totalitarian regimes. Azad is writing his story with the help of journalist Alex Perry, a British foreign correspondent who was previously at TIME magazine. Perry wrote a feature article for The New Yorker this past January about the women who brought down the Calabrian mafia. This summer, Perry's book on the same subject will be published by Willian Morrow. Long Shot will be simultaneously published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK, Droemer Knaur in Germany, Longanesi in Italy, and Luitingh-Sijthoff in the Netherlands. We'll be making early advance reading copies and sending them to esteemed writers of war narratives, including Jon Lee Anderson, Mark Bowden, and Charles Glass, in hopes of securing a few stellar blurbs.