In the fall of 2017 Near Eastern reporter and documentarist Jana Andert set out for Mosul, then occupied by Islamic State fighters. She went on her own, without support from the foreign media for which she normally works. With the Golden Division, an elite unit of the Iraqi Army, she risked her life for eight months on the front lines of the battle. During this time she got used to gunfire and rocket explosions, experienced the detonations of suicide bombers and cars packed with explosives, and comforted families grieving their lost loved ones – men, women, and children. A shock therapy of news coverage from the war front. An unflinching report from a city in ruins, robbed of its soul by one of the worst catastrophes of modern times.