I Love Russia
Reporting from a Lost Country
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Narrated by:
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Tiana Yarik
About this listen
* Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and TIME * Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice *
“A haunting book of rare courage.” —Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent and author of On All Fronts
To be a journalist is to tell the truth. I Love Russia is Elena Kostyuchenko’s unrelenting attempt to document her country as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doctors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself.
Here is Russia as it is, not as we imagine it. The result is a singular portrait of a nation, and of a young woman who refuses to be silenced. In March 2022, as a correspondent for Russia’s last free press, Novaya Gazeta, Kostyuchenko crossed the border into Ukraine to cover the war. It was her mission to ensure that Russians witnessed the horrors Putin was committing in their name. She filed her pieces knowing that should she return home, she would likely be prosecuted and sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison. Yet, driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism, she continues to write.
I Love Russia stitches together reportage from the past fifteen years with personal essays, assembling a kaleidoscopic narrative that Kostyuchenko understands may be the last work from her homeland that she’ll publish for a long time—perhaps ever. It exposes the inner workings of an entire nation as it descends into fascism and, inevitably, war. She writes because the threat of Putin’s Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine. We fail to understand it at our own peril.
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Critic reviews
“Defined by trauma and disorientation, hardiness and resolve . . . a wrenching and visceral text whose details almost seem to waft off the page. . . [Kostyuchenko] filed dispatches on Russia’s occupation and bombardment of Ukraine’s southern cities, bracing accounts laced with a sense of guilt and the utter futility of that guilt . . . Kostyuchenko’s writings are also a personal reckoning, an attempt to work through how she missed—or, rather, failed to adequately react to—Russia’s descent into fascism.”—The New Yorker, Best Books of 2023 (Essential Read)
“A stunning collection . . . [Kostyuchenko] has been assaulted, arrested, and, she writes, nearly killed in retribution for criticizing her country . . . a portrait of a country falling ever deeper into fascism. She says this vital read will be the last book she ever publishes.”—Shannon Carlin, TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2023
“Jaw-dropping . . . her style of brave, intimate reporting is likely to be a rarity in Russia for years to come.”—Valerie Hopkins, New York Times Book Review
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In 1992, the deadliest year in Chicago’s history, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed in front of his elementary school inside the public housing complex Cabrini-Green. What happened to Dantrell led to a truce among Chicago’s gangs, but it also ignited a national panic about poverty and violence in America’s cities. Dantrell’s name would soon be used to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing, displacing tens of thousands of low-income families.
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A Gripping and Necessary Work
- By booklover on 11-24-24
By: Ben Austen, and others
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
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it's Nearly perfect
- By Kerry on 09-16-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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Mythology: Mega Collection
- Classic Stories from the Greek, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian Mythology
- By: Scott Lewis
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser, Oliver Hunt
- Length: 31 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
- By Kevin Potter on 05-30-19
By: Scott Lewis
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Made in America
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up, as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question, and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.
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Bryson Not Reading Makes For a Rare Fail
- By John on 02-28-14
By: Bill Bryson
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The Roman Empire: From Augustus to the Fall of Rome
- By: Gregory S. Aldrete, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Gregory S. Aldrete
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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The Roman Empire: From Augustus to the Fall of Rome traces the breathtaking history from the empire’s foundation by Augustus to its Golden Age in the 2nd century CE through a series of ever-worsening crises until its ultimate disintegration. Taught by acclaimed Professor Gregory S. Aldrete of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, these 24 captivating lectures offer you the chance to experience this story like never before, incorporating the latest historical insights that challenge our previous notions of Rome’s decline.
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Gregory S. Aldrete is a treasure
- By Laurel Tucker on 02-04-19
By: Gregory S. Aldrete, and others
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The Pagan World
- Ancient Religions Before Christianity
- By: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Hans-Friedrich Mueller
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities.
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The Pagan World
- By arnold e andersen md Dr Andersen on 03-28-20
By: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, and others
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Flannery O'Connor and the Scandal of Faith
- By: Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jessica Hooten Wilson
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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Across six revealing lectures, Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson will introduce you to one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and divisive writers in Flannery O’Connor and the Scandal of Faith. Beginning with an overview of her brief but remarkable life, Professor Wilson will then take you through an exploration of themes in O’Connor’s work and the hallmarks of her literary style. You’ll get a clearer picture of O’Connor’s historical and geographical context while digging into how her stories can transcend time and place.
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The author reading her own book.
- By James T Casey on 12-16-24
By: Jessica Hooten Wilson, and others
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What listeners say about I Love Russia
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Vivian Pim Dias
- 11-20-23
So breathtaking!
Such a badass woman!! I love how raw this book is. It was so good to know more about Russia’s reality through so many touching stories.
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- Jarrod
- 11-21-23
Great story
What a great look behind the veil of Russia. So many things going on there to so many innocent people.
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- Daria
- 11-06-23
A life changing read
True power is the ability to unflinchingly tell the truth, no matter the consequences. Thank you, Elena
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- An avid reader
- 10-28-23
I am a Russian and I love this work
Elena Kostyuchenko created a beautiful story. When I lived in Russia many years ago, I did not know my own country’s history and what was going on right in front of me because I was very busy living my own life. Now I am shocked and saddened.
Novaya Gazeta still has a website where its authors works are published. It still has Politkovskya and Kostyuchenko articles dating back to 1999 and 2006 respectively.
Fascinating book! Thank you Elena!
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- philip
- 10-21-23
Beautiful but sad.
I had hoped that the book would focus more on politics and the war, but many of the vignettes about life is Russia were quite moving. The Conclusion is very moving, when Novaya Gazeta is shut down in 2022. I still subscribe to the version published in exile, but it is a shame they cannot publish the truth to the people who really need it. Contrary to another listener to this audiobook, I enjoyed the Russian narrator. I felt she brought an authentic voice to the work.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Delphine C. Lucas
- 01-08-24
A Reporter’s Story
I liked learning about Russia, and how it made me think more about doing everything possible in America to prevent having an authoritarian government. When a book changes the way you think, it’s a good book. I also liked hearing about the daily life of a reporter working for an independent publication and what happened to the publication when the government became more repressive. It was one of the saddest books I have ever read and it was hard to listen to because the stories were so tragic, one after the other.
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- Emma McCulloch
- 03-16-24
Mostly Aimless. Russian life is hard. Okay.
What a frustrating read. Initially, the book is confusing for its lack of storyline, then you realize there is no storyline, just a collection of disconnected mini stories about Russian life. It doesn’t add up to much.
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- Mike
- 10-19-23
Unbelievably poor narration
This review is not about the story.
I’m 39 minutes in and this has to be an all new low for Audible. The narrator’s accent is extremely difficult to understand, but worse than that, she sounds like she doesn’t understand what she’s reading. On top of the terrible narrator, I just hit a point where she flubbed a phrase and re-read it, and it wasn’t edited out. I honestly believe no one listened to this between recording and putting it out into the world. Embarrassingly low quality.
What’s frustrating is how this impacts my enjoyment of the underlying work. Someone put years of effort into writing this book, and treating it this way as an audiobook is so disrespectful.
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