The Angel of Grozny of the book's title is a Chechen woman Hadijat Gatayeva who has turned their home into an orphanage for street children of the war.
Gatayeva and her children were one of the subject of the 2005 documentary film The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (Melancholian 3 huonetta) by Pirjo Honkasalo, who kept in contact with her ever since.
•
Hadijat is also the titular "angel" in the 2008 book Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War by Åsne Seierstad.