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“Propulsive and astutely observed ... a taut thriller ... and a poignant meditation.”
—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times-bestselling author of London Falling
“Sometimes funny, frequently harrowing, always illuminating.”
—Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See
“A rich and suspenseful saga.”
—Erik Larson, New York Times-bestselling author of The Demon of Unrest
“Reads like a thriller.”
—Radhika Jones, writer and former editor, Vanity Fair
“Idiot.”
—Vladimir Putin
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About the Author
Evan Gershkovich is a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal based in Berlin. Born in New Jersey to Soviet émigrés, he lived in Russia for more than five years before his 2023 arrest and subsequent sixteen-month imprisonment on false espionage charges. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, and Foreign Policy, and he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2025 as part of an investigative team for The Journal. He is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship.
