Reading Politkovskaya is always a draining experience, and this, the last complete book of her writings and released after her death, is particularly challenging. It is organized in the form of a diary, with daily entries compiled of Politkovskaya’s notes, many of which later became articles–it includes, for example, the infamous interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, […]
Read more "“A Russian Diary” by Anna Politkovskaya"State Counsellor Erast Petrovich Fandorin is called to action again! Terrorists have conducted a daring murder using his identity as a disguise, and both professional duty and personal pride demand that he find them and bring them to justice. But as he goes deeper into the world of revolutionaries, collaborators, and double agents, he finds […]
Read more "“The State Counsellor” by Boris Akunin"Asne Seierstad was a freelance journalist in Moscow when the first Chechen war broke out. Acting under a poorly-understood compulsion to find out what was really going on there, she sweet-talked her way onto a military transport plane and ended up in Grozny. She spent several months during the first war, and again during the […]
Read more "“The Angel of Grozny” by Åsne Seierstad"The Chechen wars (1994-6 and 1999-2009, sort of) were brutal for everyone involved. But for Chechen women, they were particularly devastating. “Allah’s Angels” documents their participation and their suffering. Getting hard data about almost any aspect of the Chechen wars can be an exercise in frustration–even things that are supposedly monitored carefully by the government, […]
Read more "“Allah’s Angels: Chechen Women in War” by Paul J. Murphy"While any Politkovskaya book is an emotionally intense experience, this one is particularly wrenching: it begins with articles she wrote during the final years of her life, including the articles that may have led to her murder, and ends with tributes–some heartfelt, some grudging–paid to her after her death by her friends, admirers, and enemies […]
Read more "“Is Journalism Worth Dying For?” by Anna Politkovskaya"“People like you save yourselves by devouring Russia, and people like me–by devouring our own souls. Russia is nourished on the souls of her sons–she thrives on them. Not by the righteous ones, but by the cursed.” So says Sasha (“Sankya”) Tishin, the protagonist of “Sankya,” Zakhar Prilepin’s novel about “communofascist” Russian opposition group the […]
Read more "“Sankya” by Zakhar Prilepin"
E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 