About the Author

MELLISSA FUNG is a veteran journalist, bestselling author and filmmaker. In 2008, as a field correspondent covering Afghanistan for the CBC, she was taken hostage, an experience that led to her #1 bestselling book Under an Afghan Sky. Her story, and those of three Nigerian girls, were the subject of her first feature documentary, Captive, which premiered in 2021 and has been nominated for several major awards. Since leaving the network, Fung has focused on human rights reporting. Her work has been featured in the Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post, the Walrus and the Toronto Star, and on Al Jazeera, CNN, PBS and in other media. She has received numerous awards, including the Gracie Award, a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association award and the New York Festivals Gold and Silver Awards. Fung holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Reviews

"This is a brilliant book, an unflinching intimate history of Nigerian girls who survived capture and struggled to rebuild their lives. Rather than chronicle Boko Haram or the campaign to #bringbackourgirls, Mellissa Fung empowers the girls to speak for themselves, to recount their own fear and survival. She has given us a powerful, gripping portrait that dares us to confront horror and the stamina it takes to survive it." — Hillary Rodham Clinton

"Between Good and Evil is breathtaking and heartbreaking and, for better and worse, deeply human. In prose that is powerful and evocative, Mellissa Fung takes us into the dark heart of Boko Haram, and the terrible ordeal of the girls who were kidnapped. Told from the perspective of those girls and other principals, it is also told by someone who knows what it is like to be taken. And held. This work is important and astonishing, but it is also a riveting read." — Louise Penny, author of A World of Curiosities and the Inspector Gamache novels

"Mellissa Fung never allows us to turn away from the pain of others. With courage, she leads us into the heart of this tragic story. With compassion, she gives a voice to the voiceless. With beautiful writing, she brings their loss into our lives, so that we may share it, and perhaps ease their suffering. Mellissa is unflinching as she goes to the core of this tragedy. And compassionate as she tells their story, giving voice to the voiceless. All done with beautiful prose." — Carol Off, author of All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others

“Fung is above all a fine journalist and compelling storyteller, revealing the kidnapped girls’ worlds to the reader through powerful dialogue and visual description, with her own kidnapping experience opening doors to life experiences which might not otherwise have been shared.”  — The British Columbia Review