In the field of international relations it is not customary to focus on how individuals experience flow, beauty and love in the midst of extreme violence, or on how experiences of fear, anger and trauma can be overcome through the process of self-healing. I intend to do both in this chapter. I will discuss the experience of self-healing by drawing upon two separate narratives, each of which focuses on lived experiences in the midst of uncertainty and inhuman violence. The first, Immaculée Ilibagiza’s book, Left to Tell, describes the author’s experiences of survival and self-healing in the midst of the Rwandan genocide. The second narrative is that of a fictional character, Arrow, from Steven Galloway’s (2008) award winning novel,1 The Cellist of Sarajevo. Cellist earned praise for its ability to bring readers close to the experiences of those living in Sarajevo during the Serbian siege of the city.2 Arrow is the heroine of the novel, a counter-sniper protecting the cellist, who plays for 22 days in the square where a mortar attack killed 22 people waiting in line for bread. Each narrative shows there is more to life in the midst of war than the suffering and constriction imposed by extreme circumstances. Each narrative challenges the conceptualization of human nature as inherently fragile and vulnerable. The narratives bring forth a sense of integral life force, of being alive. This sense is activated in the face of challenging circumstances, and allows the characters to accept their circumstances and get beyond their unique experiences of fear.3 Both narratives, in their own ways, also address self-healing and agency in the midst of war, although agency and self-empowerment can be seen to lead to divergent outcomes.