Rezaul Islam was a teenager during the period of Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. A sensitive and skilled writer in his native language (Bengali/Bangla), he published the original version of this book in Bangladesh in 2017, to warm acclaim. More recently, he worked with editor Cordelia Fuller to produce an English translation of this compelling work describing his family's experiences in that tumultuous time.

In the book, he describes his encounters with young men volunteering to make risky, secret journeys to India to be trained as fighters for their country's freedom, and then returning from India to take on the military government dominating their country. The story ends with a celebration of family love, and of freedom and national self-determination.