'No one chooses to be a refugee. To leave your home – all that's familiar – all that you love. The war in Ukraine has added many millions more to the 70 million people who are being forcibly displaced around the world. Every year. No one chooses to be a refugee. But we can choose how we respond. Now. And always.'

This is the story of Katyar Tokar, a young married teacher from Kharkiv, who survives the first terrible assaults of a vicious enemy, witnesses her home destroyed, and her life thrown into confusion. This is her own story, moving, descriptive and evocative in turn, a story of so many in Ukraine after the illegal invasion of 24 February 2022. It is a gripping story of courage, hope, strength and endurance. For no-one chooses to be a refugee.