“The book is an extraordinary testament to [Evan’s] courage, and his humor, and his wisdom.”—David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker
“This book reveals, with a taut sense of pacing and a fastidious eye for detail, the codes and culture of life on the inside . . . Moscow’s Lefortovo prison”—The New Yorker
“This moving prison sketch is a scan of Russia’s soul.”—The Economist
“Warm, funny, and remarkably perceptive, this is far more than a prison diary—it is a deeply human portrait of a country Gershkovich can neither idealize nor stop loving. A vivid and often tender portrait of Russia that transcends the conventions of a prison memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Gripping, courageous and important.”—The Irish Times
“Remarkably vivid.”—The New York Post
“An intimate, unrestrained account of Russian prison life. The book is also more than just 491 days in the life of Evan Gershkovich. In between his jail-cell tales, he weaves in the story of modern Russia—a place with which he clearly enjoys a love affair, despite the embrace turning chilly. . . . The bar is admittedly high when it comes to the artistic merits of Russian prison literature—courtesy of the likes of Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky—as is the level of suffering. But while Gershkovich’s time inside may not have been quite as long or hard as theirs, his book may still take its place in the canon.”—The Daily Telegraph
“A rich and suspenseful saga of Russia’s rapid descent into autocracy, told in intimate, often chilling detail by an American reporter who saw it from the inside—as a prisoner falsely arrested for espionage by Putin’s FSB. I could be wrong, but I think I hear Solzhenitsyn applauding in his grave.”—Erik Larson, New York Times-bestselling author of The Demon of Unrest
“Sometimes funny, frequently harrowing, always illuminating, This Cursed Beautiful Land is more than the story of a news reporter who became the news. Gershkovich lives in two worlds at once—American and Russian, observer and protagonist, subject and object—while an autocratic regime tries to reduce him to a trading chip. This book is a testament to the humanity he refused to surrender, and a prison memoir that doubles as a love letter, not to the dictatorship that imprisoned him, but to the Russia underneath: its language, landscape, literature, and people.”—Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See
“Propulsive and astutely observed, This Cursed Beautiful Land is much more than a captivity memoir by a young man who found himself at the center of a geopolitical storm. It is a rousing tribute to the beauty and importance of old-fashioned journalism, a taut thriller of high stakes ‘hostage diplomacy,’ and a poignant meditation on the human struggle between hope and apathy under authoritarian rule.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of London Falling
“In this memoir that reads like a thriller, Evan Gershkovich brings all his reportorial skills to bear as he chronicles his journey through a Kafka-esque justice system. As a pawn in the new Great Game of prisoner swapping, the journalist became the news. Now Evan tells the private story behind his public ordeal, in vivid detail and with a profound understanding of Russian history and prison’s effect on individual lives.”—Radhika Jones, writer and former editor, Vanity Fair
