A review by noapathy
I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenko

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Elena Kostyuchenko shares some of her reporting from the past 15 years interspersed with personal essays. She worked for Novaya Gazeta, the last independent newspaper in Russia, recently shut down due to her reporting on the war in Ukraine. She has had to flee the country and doesn't know if she will ever be able to return. Even though I have had many Russian friends, colleagues, and students over the years, and have traveled there for work, the country has always felt like a black box to me. This book offers a heartbreaking peek into that box, and into Kostyuchenko's relentless critique of (and love for) her home country.