I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country

“A fascinating, frightening, compulsively readable chronicle of life in Putin's Russia. As a girl, Elena Kostyuchenko wanted to believe in her country; as a journalist she has dedicated her life to exposing its darkness. Her prose is haunting, edgy, searing. Her stories are unforgettable, and deeply important.” ―Carol Off, author of All We Leave Behind“Fearless reporting. . . . Shocking and moving. . . . More helpful than the welter of books by Western experts when it comes to countering Putin’s disinformation.” —The Times“Kaleidoscopic. . . . Traces the recent evolution of Russian society, highlighting its persistent inequality and injustice, and suggesting why so many Russians stay silent as their leader prosecutes a ruinous war.” —The New York Times“Elena Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century.  She exemplifies all the reportorial virtues, from physical courage through careful prose. The Russia she recounts here is the Russia we need to understand.” —Timothy Snyder, historian and author of The Road to Unfreedom and On Tyranny“Brilliant and immersive. . . . Reportage at its brave and luminous best. . . . Kostyuchenko’s fearless coverage of the war in Ukraine speaks for itself. . . . She argues that to love one’s country—truly, deeply—is to view it critically, through a harsh and unblinking gaze.” —The Observer“Kostyuchenko’s deep affection for Russia’s people is evident in her empathetic and nuanced reporting.” —The New York Times “I Love Russia is full of rigorous journalistic detail, but is also deeply personal, beautifully written . . . real and intimate.” —iNews“Would you like to know where Putin comes from? What the Russians are like today? And why? Read this book. For years, the author has been keeping a diary of the soul of her people, with love and with hate. Scientists claim that there is no place in the body where the soul resides. So where is it then? The author goes to homes and schools, sits at weddings and celebrations, asking about love and hate, children and parents. We get to see the rise of the monster that now leaves its footprints in Kyiv, Bucha and Irpin—and how it forces the whole world to fear the future.” —Svetlana Alexievich, author of Secondhand Time“Elena's bravery and reportage are astonishing—the Russia we never see, every page another insight into life under Putin.” ― Christina Lamb, author of Our Bodies, Their Battlefields“A haunting book of rare courage. Kostyuchenko’s searing reportage takes the reader under the skin of a Russia that few outsiders get to see. With spare, unflinching prose she lays bare the cynicism and corruption, but also the bravery and heart, of her beloved country.” —Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent and author of On All Fronts“Not only does Kostyuchenko find her way into the very darkness, she goes for its blackest corners. . . . The good news that emerges is her talent. Read her. It’s worth it.” —Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize“Bold, revelatory . . . This is remarkable, courageous first-person journalism from a Russian woman who was raised a proud patriot, and now finds herself compelled to tell the awful truth of the country's oppressive authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin.” ―The Big Issue“In this sharp-edged debut, Kostyuchenko shares experiences from her harrowing career as a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow-based independent newspaper . . . Throughout, Kostyuchenko's journalistic integrity is unquestionable and the dangers she faces are very real. It's a vivid and poignant account.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review) “I Love Russia, while true to its name, holds that the greatest form of patriotism is criticism. It’s a mixture of Kostyuchenko’s reporting—on the 2014 war in Donbas, Ukraine, the contract killing of six of her colleagues, the Russian government’s grim denial of the fighting in Donetsk in 2012—and her deeply personal essays . . . makes a point to foreground the overlooked and oppressed.” —TIME, Best Books of October“Intimately, disturbingly detailed. . . important. A deeply felt, fractured collection reveals a fractured, benumbed society.” —Kirkus Reviews