I, Who Did Not Die tells the incredible story of two men — one from Iraq, the other from Iran — who were destined to be mortal enemies but instead found in each other mercy, kindness and hope.

Najah Aboud was conscripted in Iraq in 1980, shortly after Saddam Hussein sent troops sweeping across the border — a disastrous attempt to overthrow Tehran's new government. In 1982, at age 13, Zahed Haftlang joined Iran's Basij paramilitary in Tehran's fight against neighbouring Iraq. The two young men found themselves fighting in one of the 20th century's most brutal wars, a conflict that left 1.5 million dead.

Zahed was among the first Iranian troops in Khorramshahr after Saddam's invasion. He was ordered to clear the bunkers and execute any surviving Iraqis. Zahed prayed he would not find anyone alive, but, in the third bunker, he heard a sound. In the beam of his flashlight he saw six dead Iraqis and among them was Najah. Zahed could not kill him — instead he kept him alive, bringing him water, morphine and blood. He hung an IV drip from a knife jammed into a wall and eventually brought him to a field hospital.

Nearly 20 years later — after surviving war, torture, being held as a prisoner of war and heartbreaking loss — on the other side of the world, the two men found themselves sitting beside each other in the waiting room of the Vancouver Association for the Survivors of Torture. As the two men told one another the story of how they'd come to this country and found their way to this waiting room, they realized that their paths had crossed before. (From Simon & Schuster Canada)

I, Who Did Not Die is available in May 2017.