Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich writes book about wrongful detention in Russian prison
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained by Russia for more than a year before being freed in a massive prisoner swap in 2024, has written a book about his ordeal, "This Cursed Beautiful Land."
Gershkovich, 34, was arrested on March 29, 2023, while reporting on a trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage. The Biden administration declared him "wrongfully detained" and The Wall Street Journal and U.S. government both emphatically denied the charge, which was widely condemned as a thinly disguised effort to take the reporter hostage.
After more than a year of delays, he was convicted in 2024 in a closed court of "gathering secret information" and sentenced to 16 years at a penal colony. Wall Street Journal leaders blasted the "sham conviction" and repeatedly called for his immediate release while his friends, family and the journalism community worked to keep his name in the spotlight.
Gershkovich, along with U.S. veteran Paul Whelan, was finally freed as part of a massive swap involving the United States and Germany in August 2024.
All the while, Gershkovich had continued his reporting from inside Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, and he took to X on Friday to announce his work was nearly ready for consumption.
"Sorry. Phone died. What did I miss? In the meantime, I wrote a book," Gershkovich posted on social media Friday alongside an image of the "This Cursed Beautiful Land" cover. It will be released on Sept. 29.
WSJ REPORTER EVAN GERSHKOVICH RELEASED BY RUSSIA IN PRISONER SWAP; PAUL WHELAN ALSO BEING FREED
BIDEN CALLS RUSSIA PRISONER SWAP DEAL THAT FREED WSJ'S GERSHKOVICH, WHELAN A 'FEAT OF DIPLOMACY'
According to publisher Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, the book is "more than a prison memoir" and offers "an extraordinary, deeply reported chronicle of a misunderstood people and their land—marked at once by stunning beauty and a haunting history."
Gershkovich, the first known Western journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia, aims to provide "a glimpse inside the perils and contradictions of a country in the midst of autocracy."
"In writing by turns riveting and humorous, Evan brings readers inside the events leading to his arrest, his nearly 500 days in Russian prisons, and the blockbuster, multi-country prisoner swap that freed him," the summary states.
Gershkovich's parents were Soviet immigrants who met after they'd both reached the U.S. He grew up in New Jersey but always had a fascination for his parents' homeland, entering reporting and doing stints at The New York Times, The Moscow Times and Agence France-Presse before joining The Wall Street Journal in 2022.
He had been living and working in Russia for six years at the time of his detainment in 2023.