Living No Lie
A Russian Diary: 2021 – 2024
Artem Mozgovoy
"From Russia," I replied and felt such a powerful wave of shame, yes, shame flooding me through and through that I was surprised myself by the intensity of the emotion...
Yes, despite all the conversations, all my thinking that I was not responsible, that I was not accountable in any way, despite all my worries, first and foremost, about my mother in Russia, and only then of whatever happened in Ukraine...
...yes, now I was staring into this Ukrainian woman's eyes with the burning shame.
"But I've lived here for twelve years," I blurbed out, no doubt in order to apologise.
Winner of the Bo Huston Prize 2024.
All of the author's proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to support Ukrainian war refugees.
Michael Bronski
Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at Harvard
This is a story of exile – from homeland, from family, from freedom, from humanity – and it strikes at the heart of who each of us is today in a world torn apart by hatred and fear. Mozgovoy’s clinical eye for the details of the material world is matched by his enormous ability to convey the deepest, often most frightening emotions. His writing can shatter the soul.
To say this is a brilliant meditation on exile – which it is – ignores the cold blooded fact that the harsh realities with which his diary grapples are lived everyday by people trapped in the maelstrom of history.
