DAYS OF LOVE AND RAGE: Anand Gopal in Conversation with Sally Hayden

In 2011, in a city in northern Syria, a small group of men and women began a movement that overthrew a brutal dictatorship. For the next eighteen months, many of the citizens of Manbij carried out one of the most remarkable experiments in democracy in modern times.

Days of Love and Rage details the powerfully intimate narratives of the men and women who led this struggle, and who experienced the highs of camaraderie and the lows of betrayal. Among them: a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, and a worker who risks everything for the dream of equality.

Anand Gopal immerses you in the world of a single city in the throes of revolution, and lays bare the danger that inequality poses to democracy. But this book transcends the particulars of one terrible conflict to tell the broader story of rising authoritarianism in our times. Days of Love and Rage has the force, sweep and artistry of a great novel, and is ultimately a story of our enduring human need for dignity and hope.

Anand Gopal is a journalist and author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, which describes the travails of three Afghans caught in the war on terror. Gopal is notable for his reporting in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He is believed to be one of the few Western journalists to have embedded with the Taliban, an experience that forms part of the basis of No Good Men Among the Living. He has reported for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harpers and other outlets. From 2012-2014 Gopal was a Bernard L.Schwartz Fellow at the New American Foundation.

Sally Hayden is an award-winning journalist, photographer and author. She is an international correspondent for the Irish Times and has reported all over the world for an array of outlets, including CNN International, TIME, the BBC, the New York Times and Al Jazeera. Her first book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award, the Michel Déon Prize, the Terzani Prize, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, among others. She has twice been named overall ‘Journalist of the Year’ at the Irish Journalism Awards – in 2023 and 2025. In 2022, she won the International Award at Irish Tatler’s Women of the Year Awards. She is also an adjunct professor at the UCD Sutherland School of Law.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

Tickets: £10 General Admission, £8 Foyalty Member / £30 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of Days of Love and Rage (RRP £25)
Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

*Please note that the Auditorium at Foyles is fully accessible from the Ground floor lifts.