Francesca Borri was born in Italy in 1980. She holds a Master's in International Relations, a Master's in Human Rights, and a Bachelor's in Philosophy of Law. After a first experience in the Balkans, she worked in the Middle East as a human rights officer. She turned to journalism in February 2012 to cover the war in Syria as captured in her book Syrian Dust. She is the author of books on Kosovo (2008), Israel and Palestine (2010), and Aleppo (2014). In 2017 she was shortlisted for the European Press Prize for her from the Maldives, the non-Arab country with the highest per capita number of foreign fighters. Destination Paradise, the book based on that reportage, was published in 2018.
