First published 2024
Brittney Griner arrives at Moscow's security checkpoint in February 2022, expecting another basketball season with her Russian team. Instead, guards arrest her for carrying less than one gram of prescribed hash oil. Days later, Russia invades Ukraine, and Brittney becomes trapped in a foreign legal system she cannot navigate. She faces trial, sentencing, and becomes the first American woman sent to a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement campaigns for her freedom. Through ten months of captivity, she clings to memories of her wife Cherelle and draws strength from hundreds of letters from supporters. Her ordeal ends with a prisoner exchange involving Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner reveals how love for her family sustained her through isolation and fear, transforming her from hostage into an advocate for forgotten Americans detained abroad.
Genres: history, crime, memoir, non-fiction, biography-memoir, current-affairs
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, true-story
Setting: Moscow, Russia
Period: 2022
320 pages · Hardcover · Knopf