This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story

By Evan Gershkovich The “enthralling” ( New York Times ), much-anticipated memoir from the Wall Street Journal reporter who was wrongly imprisoned in Putin's Russia for more than a year—a glimpse inside the perils and contradictions of a country in the midst of autocracy “Propulsive . . . a taut thriller.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, #1 New York Times bestselling author of London Falling “Beautiful writing . . . a phenomenal book.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Compelling . . . an intimate first-person account. He brings us right inside his prison cell. . . . I can't recommend the book highly enough. . . . A great story.”—George Stephanopoulos, on Good Morning America (9/28/26) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL BY: The New York Times Book Review, Lit Hub, New York Post, Town & Country, The Times (UK) In March 2023, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Evan Gershkovich met with a union boss connected with a Russian tank factory. As the journalist sat with his source in an empty restaurant in an industrial city 900 miles east of Moscow, a squad of masked agents charged in, blindfolded Evan, and dragged him into an unmarked van. The agents were from the FSB, Putin's powerful security service, and the successor to the Soviet-era KGB. Five years earlier, Evan had arrived in Moscow to jumpstart his journalism career. His parents had left the Soviet Union in the 1970s, forging a middle-class life in New Jersey, where Evan grew up on Soviet-era cartoons and weekend trips to Brighton Beach. In Moscow, Evan dove into life—unpacking politics for readers of The Moscow Times and developing a circle of deep friendships with Russian peers, all striving to make their way in perilous times. Western journalists had long felt insulated from the dangers their Russian counterparts experienced. But war, it seemed, had changed the rules. Interrogated for hours after his arrest, Evan was told he was being charged with spying and thrown in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison—a pawn i

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