This was such a riveting read! I have to admit that I knew absolutely nothing about Yemen before starting this book, and I don't know much more now. No blame to the author there; he cannot be expected to fill in so much ignorance with a single book. The religious war that is devastating the country has a very personal consequence for Al Samawi - as a peace activist with a particular interest in building bridges between people of different faiths, he's pretty much directly in the firing line of all the parties currently at war in his country. His family, though loving, is less than sympathetic and he can't really confide in them anyway, as doing so would only put them at more risk as the conflict escalates. Disabled, cut off from everyone he knows and sheltering in the port city of Aden, pretty much the only resource he has is the internet. He uses it to ask for help... and then something amazing happens, something that helps to consolidate a belief in the human potential for goodness. A handful of strangers come together and, in a desperate last-minute bit of networking and politicking, involving two countries and numerous officials, they manage to smuggle Al Samawi out of Yemen.

It's all horribly exciting. I say "horribly" because, even though I knew going in that he'd get out safely (the fact that he survived to write the book being something of a spoiler in that regard) the sequence of events is so fragile, and so terrifying, so dangerous and apparently hopeless, that it's genuinely nail-biting to read.