David D. Kirkpatrick is an international correspondent based in London for the New York Times. From 2011 through 2015 he was the Cairo bureau chief. He has also been a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a contributing editor for New York magazine. Into the Hands of the Soldiers is his first book.

A poignant, deeply human portrait of Egypt during the Arab Spring, told through the lives of individuals

A FINANCIAL TIMES AND AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'This will be the must read on the destruction of Egypt's revolution and democratic moment' Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch

'Sweeping, passionate ... An essential work of reportage for our time' Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

In 2011, Egyptians of all sects, ages and social classes shook off millennia of autocracy, then elected a Muslim Brother as president. New York Times correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick arrived in Egypt with his family less than six months before the uprising first broke out in 2011. As revolution and violence engulfed the country, he lived through Cairo's hopes and disappointments alongside the diverse population of his new city.

Into the Hands of the Soldiers is a heartbreaking story with a simple message: the failings of decades of autocratic rule are the reason for the chaos we see across the Arab world. Understanding the story of what happened in those years can help readers make sense of everything taking place across the region today - from the terrorist attacks in North Sinai to the bedlam in Syria and Libya.

Kirkpatrick watched a historic popular uprising unfold. In this book, he brings the story to vivid life through the eyes of both the poor and the powerful

Both astute and insightful, and often as comical as it is tragic

Sweeping, passionate ... An essential work of reportage for our time

This will be the must read on the destruction of Egypt's revolution and democratic moment

A twenty-first-century successor to William L. Shirer's Berlin Diary: a first-rate reporter's riveting eyewitness account of the unfolding of a world-historical tragedy. Kirkpatrick has an uncanny ability to lend a sense of real-time suspense to events in the recent past, and to get to the truth of a dauntingly elusive story

David D. Kirkpatrick landed in Cairo as the New York Times bureau chief on the eve of revolution. Into the Hands of the Soldiers is his gripping narrative of the tumultuous years that followed, in which he was often in the eye of the storm. Observant, eloquent and empathetic, he's the perfect guide to the perplexing and sometimes heartbreaking events that snuffed out the democratic hopes of the Arab Spring. This is the rare non-fiction book that's as entertaining as it is informative

In his new book, Into the Hands of the Soldiers, Mr Kirkpatrick describes these tumultuous times in compelling detail. The author is honest about how hard it was to interpret events, grasp the motives of people such as Mr Sisi and Mr Morsi and predict the direction in which Egypt was heading . But Mr Kirkpatrick, who dodged bullets and official harassment, deciphered the mystery. The same cannot be said of the foreign powers, especially America, that watched as Egypt's democracy crumbled

When and why did the Arab Spring fall apart? A narrative has grown over the past few years that it was doomed from the start . It's a narrative that David D Kirkpatrick authoritatively demolishes as he recounts the events and the aftermath of Egypt's revolution and the bloody counter-revolution . He makes a powerful case

[Delivers] hard insights . The greatest fascination in reading Kirkpatrick's book comes from learning how Egypt's deep state works