Gershkovich memoir recounts wrongful imprisonment and release in Russia

Evan Gershkovich’s memoir recounts his arrest on false espionage charges in Russia, his 18 months in prison and his release in a 2024 prisoner exchange. The review praises the book’s compelling account of his ordeal and its portrait of how the invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s restrictions drove reporters from Russia.

Gershkovich, a US-born journalist with Russian Jewish parents, describes becoming a correspondent in a country he had grown to love. In prison, he kept a diary, read, exercised and formed bonds with cellmates, while understanding that he was likely to be exchanged; the reviewer says this relative security shapes his perspective on prison life and limits his view of Russia beyond the jail.