Political Girl

Re-told in the first person, the stories have a new, triggering force. . . At its best, it’s a page turner. The account of Ms Alyokhina’s gripping exit from Russia deserves a place in great escape books alongside Oleg Gordievsky * The Economist *
Angry, tragic and funny * Financial Times *
Vivid, dreamlike, jagged... Political Girl is exceptional, a devastating record of Russia now * The Spectator *
A vivid diary... Alyokhina’s writing captures the extremes of life as an enemy of Putin’s state * Irish Times *
A defiant memoir... The book is a field guide to the official and subcontracted repression of modern Russia. The state wants to make cogs of people; Political Girl answers with bodies, art, and the stubborn resistance of individual acts * The Observer *
Reads like a mash-up of a jail diary, a news bulletin and a Kafkaesque novel… a useful history of some of the most dystopian moments in the Putin era over the past quarter-century -- Lucy Ash * The New World *
Maria Alyokhina doesn’t surrender, and her new book glows with the revolutionary power of hope, art and solidarity -- Oliver Bullough
A rollicking, funny, street-level, first-person account of life in Russia today for anyone with an opinion or idea that does not fit. An important and witty piece of social history -- Jeremy Deller
Political Girl reads like a mash up between a diary, a news bulletin and a Kafkaesque novel. Alyokhina’s caustic wit stands alongside her steadfast faith — a striking contrast to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Orthodox Church and Pussy Riot's first enemy — whom she dismisses as “a bearded KGB agent in a cassock.” With an array of deftly drawn Kremlin stooges, cops, judges and prison guards, this is a brilliant account of what it takes to be an activist in Putin’s Russia -- Lucy Ash
Witty, urgent, and unflinching, Political Girl is a visceral journey into the heart of authoritarianism and an enduring cry for justice. From the cold concrete of prison cells to the surreal act of eating “enemy” cheese, from moments of quiet resistance to the front lines of protest, Maria Alyokhina offers a raw, fearless testament to the power—and price—of defiance. Though rooted in Russia, her story speaks far beyond its borders, to anyone who believes that protest can be art, and that art can confront, disrupt, and even destabilize authoritarian power. Political Girl is a fierce, inspiring portrait of a true star of conscience -- Alpa Shah