I read the first half of this book in a day - and suddenly came to a screeching halt. It seemed to have flow issues. It started off pretty quickly detailing his 2020 poisoning - which made him more of a household name in Western news. It described the actors, the response, his life-saving treatment, and healing in Germany. It was riveting. There are some great lines here, too:
"Navalny, who otherwise seemed in a near-catatonic state, looked up at one point and exclaimed: 'What the fuck is going on here?' Volkov later told him, 'That's when I knew you'd be ok.'"

We jumped backed to his childhood, which was also an interesting, satisfying portion. But then, it reverts to his adulthood and introduction to Russian politics. This is where it got a bit dry. In these chapters, new "characters" are introduced every few paragraphs and to be embarrassingly honest, I couldn't keep the Russian names straight. I had to keep using my Kindle search feature to look up the names as a reminder of who they were.

This is no judgment of the author, but its worth stating, in case this was not the authors intention. I was surprised to learn how racist Navalny actually is (for clarify- racist to anyone other than his specific Russian ethnicity, not just those of other countries or skin color), and not just that, but a hypocritical one. He seemed to be realizing that his brand of "ethnic nationalism" (as stated in book) didn't seem to get him as far as he hoped and later backtracked on many of his more racist comments. At first describing a video in which Navalny suggests the "handling" of immigrants with a pistol (akin to a cockroach handled with a shoe), he later states "I believe it's essential to explain to them that the problem of illegal migration is going to be solved not by violence against migrants but by other means entirely, democratic methods."

I picked up this book expecting a riveting True Crime narrative, but instead found it to be more of a detailed history lesson. However, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the intricate history of governments, rather than just the crimes themselves.

Thank you for the opportunity to review!

Excellent book! The story of a man’s battle for his country is complicated and complex. From his beginnings to his current imprisonment …

Even though this is nonfiction, I was so stressed out following this story that I had to go look him up to see how he is right now. Multiple murder attempts and he keeps going back home because he believes his country can do better! And he's crazy brave, but of course Putin didn't give up on making sure that if his assassination attempts kept falling, that Alexey Navalny is not free.
I hope he becomes free. His wife and daughter are brave too. Navalny was taunting Putin, calling him an underwear poisoner. With the war on Ukraine, who knows what will happen?
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book and to Twelve Books. The Publication of this book was on October 31st 2023.

Getting unfiltered information from certain countries in the world can be trying at times. And the filter comes from both the country in question and our own country that wants us to perceive that country in a certain way.

So when I began reading this book I was fairly new to my journey on the ways in which my country (United States)lies to us. So I had to shake off previous perceptions of Russia and generalzations I had.

The author does a good job of laying out the foundation of the who, who's and the players in the Russia and the series of events that took place to lead the country to where it is today.

My main issue is the jumping around in time within a paragraph. I understand the author is a political journalist for Moscow and knows in detail about what he is talking about and if it was a subject I was more familiar with I would be able to follow but I did get confused several times. But not enough to not want to keep reading.

I think parts of every chapter are accesible to everyone and some are less dense more attinable for the average non fiction reader. I look forward to continuing reading more on this subject matter and others so I'm more aware of the affairs of foreign affairs and culture and politics.

famous-persons, attempted-murder, imprisoned, politics, nonfiction, nonviolent-protest, committed-to-a-cause, contemporary, Russia, hunger-strike, isolation****

Navalny has been an activist against the tyranny of Putin and the Russian system of government for a number of years. Sometimes the reported acts against him almost seemed staged, but they were not. There have been poisonings, repeated isolations, repeated lengthening of his number of years sentenced to prison. His family has also been prohibited from seeing him. While in prison he has gone on hunger strike protests and has spoken out against the aggression against Ukraine. The book is written in the style of a journalist, but hopefully will bring his message and suffering to more Westerners.
I requested and received an EARC from Twelve Books, Twelve via NetGalley.
12/15/2023 At this point he has been "missing" for over a week.

This is a man with purpose. Brave - stupid brave. The story has no ending as he is still fighting, just being alive still is a win.