Domenico Quirico is the award-winning chief foreign correspondent of the Italian daily La Stampa. In 2013 he was kidnapped and held hostage for five months in Syria. He is the author of Naja. Storia del servizio di leva in Italia(2008), Primavera araba(2011), Gli ultimi. La magnifica storia dei vinti(2013). Il paese del male. 152 giorni in ostaggio in Siria (2013) and Il grande califfato (2015).