A young woman’s war diary in the tradition of the bestselling Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic (Penguin, 1994).

This is the story of Milana, twenty-seven years old, and a student at the University of Grozny at the time that she escaped and miraculously survived the two Chechen wars. She tells of the raids in which many of her family members were captured, of her extraordinary journey from the small village outside of Grozny where she was born to Paris, where she became a student at the prestigious Institut d'études politiques. Both an intimate journal and a war diary, this book relates much of the recent history and demise of a war-torn country. She describes the escape from Russian tanks, living in hiding inside of Grozny’s caves, risking her life to go to school, then fleeing to Ingushetia to escape bombings. She also tells of the euphoric period between the two wars, the ethnic cleansings and “filtration camps”, and finally, her undreamt-of flight to Paris, her discovery of the West, and her final return to Chechnya. This is the poignant testimony of an exceptional young woman whose mission is to finally give voice to her people.