Koens, a TV news reporter, takes the reader on a dizzying trip from the dusty streets of Gaza to Qatar’s blinding desert, from the calm Turkish countryside to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq to examine how animals are party to wars and sometimes escape in miraculous ways. The fate of these animals lays bare the misery, hopes and fears of people in the Middle East where storks are seen as spies, lions as trophies and dolphins as weapons.