First published 2026
Evan Gershkovich came to Moscow in 2018 to build his journalism career, following his parents who had fled the Soviet Union decades earlier. In March 2023, while meeting a source connected to a Russian tank factory, FSB agents stormed the restaurant, blindfolded him, and threw him into an unmarked van. Charged with espionage, Gershkovich became a pawn in Putin's geopolitical games, confined to Moscow's Lefortovo prison. For 16 months in captivity, he continued doing what journalists do: he reported. From his cement cell, he documented Russia's prison system, its customs and vocabulary, and the unexpected moments of humanity within brutal walls. His memoir chronicles the events leading to his arrest, nearly 500 days behind bars, and the complex prisoner swap that secured his freedom. Gershkovich offers readers an inside view of contemporary Russia, its people, and a prison system few Westerners ever see.
Genres: non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism, current-affairs, russia
Vibes: gripping, harrowing, humanizing, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-hand-account, political-imprisonment, survival-narrative
Setting: Moscow, Lefortovo Prison, Russia, Soviet Union
Period: 2018, 2023, 21st Century
432 pages · Hardcover · Crown
Content warnings: torture