The Arab Spring took all of us by surprise. The questions we all have are how can such leaderless revolts, so different from others in the past, have arisen, why there, and why now.

Johnny West is the perfect guide on this quest. Returning to countries in which he had lived years before, he travels by bus and communal taxi through the back streets and small towns, sits in houses and cafés, in offices and barber shops, a fly-on-the-wall observer of encounters and arguments; he talks to students and managers, to protestors and their families, to oil workers and clerics, to people and in places where none of the media have been. Through all the conversations across Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, the author draws us into an exhilarating portrait of unforgettable characters of the Arab Spring and shares with us how they see their future.

Karama: Journeys through the Arab Spring makes you feel you are there, in those dusty streets, and that you understand why those thousands and thousands created the uprising.