Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Fascinating, but not to be read as a history book, 26 Aug 2008
I picked this up after watching "The Lives of Others." The book is well written, mixing evocative (sometimes over-elaborate) reflections with a much more sparse style when retelling some of the scarcely believable stories of the misery of life in the GDR. Some of her observations are very sharp, such as her objection to items which are still of live interest being put on display in a museum. I thought the ending was disappointing. However, books like this are often nothing more than expanded magazine articles, a charge that cannot be made here. Recommended.

An insight into East Germany, 19 Nov 2007
I had this book bought for me many months ago, but left it on the shelf until recently.
Having little or no insight into the problems of living in East Germany, I found it very well written, and very engaging. Incidently it is written as non-fiction, but presented in such a narrative way that you would think it was ficticious, and for me reading history is made easier when presented in that format.
It was a grim but interesting journey into life under the control of the 'stasi'. This police state, controlled not only by the state, but also by ordinary people in the street forced into having to 'work' for the state, to control the citizens by some of the most cruel methods, makes for a painful read. It highlights a period before 'The Wall' came down, where Russian communist control continued the deprivations of WW11.

Total Information Awareness, 29 Aug 2007
Anna Funder gives a sharply cut and moving (in)human face to the now defunct German Democratic Republic by interviewing former Stasi members (the top, foreign spies, informants, organizers) and their direct or indirect victims.
In `a world where there was nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and where anyone who wanted to do anything other than serve the Party, risked persecution or worse', the Stasi's aim was to know everything about everybody with all means, even radiation. As the author poetically states: everybody had `a mirror Nemesis' in a Stasi department. The result was that everyone suspected everyone else and turned into an `internal emigration' for the sheltering of their secret inner lives.
In fact, the Stasi was a formidable organization (one informant for every 6,5 citizens) created in order to defend the government against its own people.
Anna Funder exposes the real Stasi mentality: `The most important thing you have is power" (Chief E. Mielke). Its colossal archives were partly shredded after the fall of the Berlin Wall (15000 sacks) and are being puzzled together. A truly Herculean task.
The author paints a society built on ideological fiction (human nature was a work-in-progress which could be improved by Communism) and on blatant lies (a multi-party democracy, no former Nazis, not responsible for the Holocaust).
But what is left after the collapse? A `Wall in the Head'. The victims are still heavily marked (psychological damage by the terrifying effect of total surveillance) and some Stasi men still hope that the Wall will be built again.

Anna Funder wrote a formidable evocation of life in a communist one party state protected by a wall.
A must read.


Personal, and great for it., 03 Jan 2007
Like negative reviews here, I agree that this is a very personal book. However, I do not accept this is a valid criticism - it never claims to be anything else, and it is also warm, vivid, fascinating and well written. These are stories from the past, and (almost) present that collectively provide a rich and absorbing picture. It's not an endlessly footnoted history text...so what?

Disappointing, 30 Oct 2006
The history of the Stasi and their place in the DDR regime could make a fascinating and important book. This, unfortunately, is not that book. Instead, this is the journal of an Australian writer living in eastern Germany as she meets various people with experience of the Stasi. It reads rather like a travel book, and - like most travel writers - Ms Funder believes that she is more interesting than her subject. We are treated to repetitive and pointless accounts of her thoughts, her train and bus journeys, her dreams, and her time spent doing nothing in her almost-empty apartment.

The real content of the book consists of 11 interviews with people connected (as employees or victims) with the Stasi. Except in two cases, Ms Funder makes her interviewees into charicatures (the heroic victim who refused to betray her friend, the raving former propogandist, the swave covert operative in a black BMW) and has often told us how to judge them before she has even met them. Their stories are compelling, but they are constantly interrupted by Ms Funder's descriptions of her own reactions. The repeated interjections of "I'm startled", "I think to myself...", "I imagine..." are tiresome.

I am judging this book harshly because it has been so celebrated elsewhere. In particular, I am disappointed that the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize undermined the value of their prize by awarding it in 2004 to this superficial and journalistic account of an important subject.

Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Fascinating, but not to be read as a history book, 26 Aug 2008
I picked this up after watching "The Lives of Others." The book is well written, mixing evocative (sometimes over-elaborate) reflections with a much more sparse style when retelling some of the scarcely believable stories of the misery of life in the GDR. Some of her observations are very sharp, such as her objection to items which are still of live interest being put on display in a museum. I thought the ending was disappointing. However, books like this are often nothing more than expanded magazine articles, a charge that cannot be made here. Recommended.

An insight into East Germany, 19 Nov 2007
I had this book bought for me many months ago, but left it on the shelf until recently.
Having little or no insight into the problems of living in East Germany, I found it very well written, and very engaging. Incidently it is written as non-fiction, but presented in such a narrative way that you would think it was ficticious, and for me reading history is made easier when presented in that format.
It was a grim but interesting journey into life under the control of the 'stasi'. This police state, controlled not only by the state, but also by ordinary people in the street forced into having to 'work' for the state, to control the citizens by some of the most cruel methods, makes for a painful read. It highlights a period before 'The Wall' came down, where Russian communist control continued the deprivations of WW11.

Total Information Awareness, 29 Aug 2007
Anna Funder gives a sharply cut and moving (in)human face to the now defunct German Democratic Republic by interviewing former Stasi members (the top, foreign spies, informants, organizers) and their direct or indirect victims.
In `a world where there was nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and where anyone who wanted to do anything other than serve the Party, risked persecution or worse', the Stasi's aim was to know everything about everybody with all means, even radiation. As the author poetically states: everybody had `a mirror Nemesis' in a Stasi department. The result was that everyone suspected everyone else and turned into an `internal emigration' for the sheltering of their secret inner lives.
In fact, the Stasi was a formidable organization (one informant for every 6,5 citizens) created in order to defend the government against its own people.
Anna Funder exposes the real Stasi mentality: `The most important thing you have is power" (Chief E. Mielke). Its colossal archives were partly shredded after the fall of the Berlin Wall (15000 sacks) and are being puzzled together. A truly Herculean task.
The author paints a society built on ideological fiction (human nature was a work-in-progress which could be improved by Communism) and on blatant lies (a multi-party democracy, no former Nazis, not responsible for the Holocaust).
But what is left after the collapse? A `Wall in the Head'. The victims are still heavily marked (psychological damage by the terrifying effect of total surveillance) and some Stasi men still hope that the Wall will be built again.

Anna Funder wrote a formidable evocation of life in a communist one party state protected by a wall.
A must read.


Personal, and great for it., 03 Jan 2007
Like negative reviews here, I agree that this is a very personal book. However, I do not accept this is a valid criticism - it never claims to be anything else, and it is also warm, vivid, fascinating and well written. These are stories from the past, and (almost) present that collectively provide a rich and absorbing picture. It's not an endlessly footnoted history text...so what?

Disappointing, 30 Oct 2006
The history of the Stasi and their place in the DDR regime could make a fascinating and important book. This, unfortunately, is not that book. Instead, this is the journal of an Australian writer living in eastern Germany as she meets various people with experience of the Stasi. It reads rather like a travel book, and - like most travel writers - Ms Funder believes that she is more interesting than her subject. We are treated to repetitive and pointless accounts of her thoughts, her train and bus journeys, her dreams, and her time spent doing nothing in her almost-empty apartment.

The real content of the book consists of 11 interviews with people connected (as employees or victims) with the Stasi. Except in two cases, Ms Funder makes her interviewees into charicatures (the heroic victim who refused to betray her friend, the raving former propogandist, the swave covert operative in a black BMW) and has often told us how to judge them before she has even met them. Their stories are compelling, but they are constantly interrupted by Ms Funder's descriptions of her own reactions. The repeated interjections of "I'm startled", "I think to myself...", "I imagine..." are tiresome.

I am judging this book harshly because it has been so celebrated elsewhere. In particular, I am disappointed that the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize undermined the value of their prize by awarding it in 2004 to this superficial and journalistic account of an important subject.

The best book I have read about the old USSR, 13 Aug 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziard's childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family managed to avoid it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. I nearly cried when he told of the time when his teacher said the sweet shop was closing and they were giving away free sweets. All the children queued all night in the wind and snow to wait for the shop to open only to be given the empty sweet jars - just one each.

In his position as the only foreign correspondent in Poland he moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us haven't heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness, demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin that had taken over 40 years to build, with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in descriptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great. Permalink | Why no voting buttons?

Best ever book about the USSR, 06 Jun 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family avoided it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. He then moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in desciptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great.

The best ever book about the old USSR, 04 Jun 2008
Truly truly amazing book by a great journalist who went forth fearlessly where others would not dare. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the USSR during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family miraculously avoided it. He moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. The incredible cruelty of Stalin's illiterate henchment is laid bare here with true stories from places that would be hell on earth in any circumstances. So bizarre, so interesting. Do read this if you are atall interested in the USSR it is great.

A truly great book , 09 Jan 2008
Ryszard Kapuscinski was an award winning international reporter who grew up in Poland and spent 40 years in Africa where he experienced 27 revolutions! Imperium is his account of life in the 'colonies' of the USSR before its break up. RK is a truly phenomenal writer who believes that you cannot write about something unless you have been there and experienced something 'with your own skin'. He is incapable of writing a dull word. The book consists of his travels to eg Ukraine, his experiences, observations and comments. What he sees and does is absolutely fascinating. He has the ability to capture the essence of a place through pen pictures so the reader really feels informed but his writing is utterly varied, lucid and descriptive. If you have an enquiring mind you will love this book. RK should have got the Nobel Prize for literature!

MORE THAN A TRAVEL BOOK..., 01 Feb 2002
After reading the first few pages I knew I would be forever a fan of Ryszard Kapuscinksi. Writing in a captivating and extremely enjoyable prose, Ryszard attempts to convey the recent history of the Soviet Union and more so its ressiliant and inhabitants. Travelling across the USSR as it begins to crumble, Ryszard describes the strength and endurance of those who survived the cold oppression of the soviet regime. After finishing this book I had the burning urge to read more of this brilliant journalist and can't wait to sample some of his other books.

Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Fascinating, but not to be read as a history book, 26 Aug 2008
I picked this up after watching "The Lives of Others." The book is well written, mixing evocative (sometimes over-elaborate) reflections with a much more sparse style when retelling some of the scarcely believable stories of the misery of life in the GDR. Some of her observations are very sharp, such as her objection to items which are still of live interest being put on display in a museum. I thought the ending was disappointing. However, books like this are often nothing more than expanded magazine articles, a charge that cannot be made here. Recommended.

An insight into East Germany, 19 Nov 2007
I had this book bought for me many months ago, but left it on the shelf until recently.
Having little or no insight into the problems of living in East Germany, I found it very well written, and very engaging. Incidently it is written as non-fiction, but presented in such a narrative way that you would think it was ficticious, and for me reading history is made easier when presented in that format.
It was a grim but interesting journey into life under the control of the 'stasi'. This police state, controlled not only by the state, but also by ordinary people in the street forced into having to 'work' for the state, to control the citizens by some of the most cruel methods, makes for a painful read. It highlights a period before 'The Wall' came down, where Russian communist control continued the deprivations of WW11.

Total Information Awareness, 29 Aug 2007
Anna Funder gives a sharply cut and moving (in)human face to the now defunct German Democratic Republic by interviewing former Stasi members (the top, foreign spies, informants, organizers) and their direct or indirect victims.
In `a world where there was nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and where anyone who wanted to do anything other than serve the Party, risked persecution or worse', the Stasi's aim was to know everything about everybody with all means, even radiation. As the author poetically states: everybody had `a mirror Nemesis' in a Stasi department. The result was that everyone suspected everyone else and turned into an `internal emigration' for the sheltering of their secret inner lives.
In fact, the Stasi was a formidable organization (one informant for every 6,5 citizens) created in order to defend the government against its own people.
Anna Funder exposes the real Stasi mentality: `The most important thing you have is power" (Chief E. Mielke). Its colossal archives were partly shredded after the fall of the Berlin Wall (15000 sacks) and are being puzzled together. A truly Herculean task.
The author paints a society built on ideological fiction (human nature was a work-in-progress which could be improved by Communism) and on blatant lies (a multi-party democracy, no former Nazis, not responsible for the Holocaust).
But what is left after the collapse? A `Wall in the Head'. The victims are still heavily marked (psychological damage by the terrifying effect of total surveillance) and some Stasi men still hope that the Wall will be built again.

Anna Funder wrote a formidable evocation of life in a communist one party state protected by a wall.
A must read.


Personal, and great for it., 03 Jan 2007
Like negative reviews here, I agree that this is a very personal book. However, I do not accept this is a valid criticism - it never claims to be anything else, and it is also warm, vivid, fascinating and well written. These are stories from the past, and (almost) present that collectively provide a rich and absorbing picture. It's not an endlessly footnoted history text...so what?

Disappointing, 30 Oct 2006
The history of the Stasi and their place in the DDR regime could make a fascinating and important book. This, unfortunately, is not that book. Instead, this is the journal of an Australian writer living in eastern Germany as she meets various people with experience of the Stasi. It reads rather like a travel book, and - like most travel writers - Ms Funder believes that she is more interesting than her subject. We are treated to repetitive and pointless accounts of her thoughts, her train and bus journeys, her dreams, and her time spent doing nothing in her almost-empty apartment.

The real content of the book consists of 11 interviews with people connected (as employees or victims) with the Stasi. Except in two cases, Ms Funder makes her interviewees into charicatures (the heroic victim who refused to betray her friend, the raving former propogandist, the swave covert operative in a black BMW) and has often told us how to judge them before she has even met them. Their stories are compelling, but they are constantly interrupted by Ms Funder's descriptions of her own reactions. The repeated interjections of "I'm startled", "I think to myself...", "I imagine..." are tiresome.

I am judging this book harshly because it has been so celebrated elsewhere. In particular, I am disappointed that the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize undermined the value of their prize by awarding it in 2004 to this superficial and journalistic account of an important subject.

The best book I have read about the old USSR, 13 Aug 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziard's childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family managed to avoid it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. I nearly cried when he told of the time when his teacher said the sweet shop was closing and they were giving away free sweets. All the children queued all night in the wind and snow to wait for the shop to open only to be given the empty sweet jars - just one each.

In his position as the only foreign correspondent in Poland he moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us haven't heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness, demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin that had taken over 40 years to build, with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in descriptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great. Permalink | Why no voting buttons?

Best ever book about the USSR, 06 Jun 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family avoided it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. He then moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in desciptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great.

The best ever book about the old USSR, 04 Jun 2008
Truly truly amazing book by a great journalist who went forth fearlessly where others would not dare. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the USSR during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family miraculously avoided it. He moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. The incredible cruelty of Stalin's illiterate henchment is laid bare here with true stories from places that would be hell on earth in any circumstances. So bizarre, so interesting. Do read this if you are atall interested in the USSR it is great.

A truly great book , 09 Jan 2008
Ryszard Kapuscinski was an award winning international reporter who grew up in Poland and spent 40 years in Africa where he experienced 27 revolutions! Imperium is his account of life in the 'colonies' of the USSR before its break up. RK is a truly phenomenal writer who believes that you cannot write about something unless you have been there and experienced something 'with your own skin'. He is incapable of writing a dull word. The book consists of his travels to eg Ukraine, his experiences, observations and comments. What he sees and does is absolutely fascinating. He has the ability to capture the essence of a place through pen pictures so the reader really feels informed but his writing is utterly varied, lucid and descriptive. If you have an enquiring mind you will love this book. RK should have got the Nobel Prize for literature!

MORE THAN A TRAVEL BOOK..., 01 Feb 2002
After reading the first few pages I knew I would be forever a fan of Ryszard Kapuscinksi. Writing in a captivating and extremely enjoyable prose, Ryszard attempts to convey the recent history of the Soviet Union and more so its ressiliant and inhabitants. Travelling across the USSR as it begins to crumble, Ryszard describes the strength and endurance of those who survived the cold oppression of the soviet regime. After finishing this book I had the burning urge to read more of this brilliant journalist and can't wait to sample some of his other books.

Interesting read, 15 Dec 2002
I read this book after hearing about it from the open university, and i wasn't dissapointed. It gives a perspective of the two wars that many historians including teachers never touch upon. The concept of total war is given significant space which will make you rethink the criterea of a so called 'total'war'. It covers the two war with a smooth transition covering some of the post-war aspects of european society. I would highly recommend this book to people of all educational backgrounds be it A-level or degree status.

Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Fascinating, but not to be read as a history book, 26 Aug 2008
I picked this up after watching "The Lives of Others." The book is well written, mixing evocative (sometimes over-elaborate) reflections with a much more sparse style when retelling some of the scarcely believable stories of the misery of life in the GDR. Some of her observations are very sharp, such as her objection to items which are still of live interest being put on display in a museum. I thought the ending was disappointing. However, books like this are often nothing more than expanded magazine articles, a charge that cannot be made here. Recommended.

An insight into East Germany, 19 Nov 2007
I had this book bought for me many months ago, but left it on the shelf until recently.
Having little or no insight into the problems of living in East Germany, I found it very well written, and very engaging. Incidently it is written as non-fiction, but presented in such a narrative way that you would think it was ficticious, and for me reading history is made easier when presented in that format.
It was a grim but interesting journey into life under the control of the 'stasi'. This police state, controlled not only by the state, but also by ordinary people in the street forced into having to 'work' for the state, to control the citizens by some of the most cruel methods, makes for a painful read. It highlights a period before 'The Wall' came down, where Russian communist control continued the deprivations of WW11.

Total Information Awareness, 29 Aug 2007
Anna Funder gives a sharply cut and moving (in)human face to the now defunct German Democratic Republic by interviewing former Stasi members (the top, foreign spies, informants, organizers) and their direct or indirect victims.
In `a world where there was nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and where anyone who wanted to do anything other than serve the Party, risked persecution or worse', the Stasi's aim was to know everything about everybody with all means, even radiation. As the author poetically states: everybody had `a mirror Nemesis' in a Stasi department. The result was that everyone suspected everyone else and turned into an `internal emigration' for the sheltering of their secret inner lives.
In fact, the Stasi was a formidable organization (one informant for every 6,5 citizens) created in order to defend the government against its own people.
Anna Funder exposes the real Stasi mentality: `The most important thing you have is power" (Chief E. Mielke). Its colossal archives were partly shredded after the fall of the Berlin Wall (15000 sacks) and are being puzzled together. A truly Herculean task.
The author paints a society built on ideological fiction (human nature was a work-in-progress which could be improved by Communism) and on blatant lies (a multi-party democracy, no former Nazis, not responsible for the Holocaust).
But what is left after the collapse? A `Wall in the Head'. The victims are still heavily marked (psychological damage by the terrifying effect of total surveillance) and some Stasi men still hope that the Wall will be built again.

Anna Funder wrote a formidable evocation of life in a communist one party state protected by a wall.
A must read.


Personal, and great for it., 03 Jan 2007
Like negative reviews here, I agree that this is a very personal book. However, I do not accept this is a valid criticism - it never claims to be anything else, and it is also warm, vivid, fascinating and well written. These are stories from the past, and (almost) present that collectively provide a rich and absorbing picture. It's not an endlessly footnoted history text...so what?

Disappointing, 30 Oct 2006
The history of the Stasi and their place in the DDR regime could make a fascinating and important book. This, unfortunately, is not that book. Instead, this is the journal of an Australian writer living in eastern Germany as she meets various people with experience of the Stasi. It reads rather like a travel book, and - like most travel writers - Ms Funder believes that she is more interesting than her subject. We are treated to repetitive and pointless accounts of her thoughts, her train and bus journeys, her dreams, and her time spent doing nothing in her almost-empty apartment.

The real content of the book consists of 11 interviews with people connected (as employees or victims) with the Stasi. Except in two cases, Ms Funder makes her interviewees into charicatures (the heroic victim who refused to betray her friend, the raving former propogandist, the swave covert operative in a black BMW) and has often told us how to judge them before she has even met them. Their stories are compelling, but they are constantly interrupted by Ms Funder's descriptions of her own reactions. The repeated interjections of "I'm startled", "I think to myself...", "I imagine..." are tiresome.

I am judging this book harshly because it has been so celebrated elsewhere. In particular, I am disappointed that the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize undermined the value of their prize by awarding it in 2004 to this superficial and journalistic account of an important subject.

The best book I have read about the old USSR, 13 Aug 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziard's childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family managed to avoid it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. I nearly cried when he told of the time when his teacher said the sweet shop was closing and they were giving away free sweets. All the children queued all night in the wind and snow to wait for the shop to open only to be given the empty sweet jars - just one each.

In his position as the only foreign correspondent in Poland he moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us haven't heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness, demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin that had taken over 40 years to build, with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in descriptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great. Permalink | Why no voting buttons?

Best ever book about the USSR, 06 Jun 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family avoided it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. He then moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in desciptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great.

The best ever book about the old USSR, 04 Jun 2008
Truly truly amazing book by a great journalist who went forth fearlessly where others would not dare. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the USSR during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family miraculously avoided it. He moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. The incredible cruelty of Stalin's illiterate henchment is laid bare here with true stories from places that would be hell on earth in any circumstances. So bizarre, so interesting. Do read this if you are atall interested in the USSR it is great.

A truly great book , 09 Jan 2008
Ryszard Kapuscinski was an award winning international reporter who grew up in Poland and spent 40 years in Africa where he experienced 27 revolutions! Imperium is his account of life in the 'colonies' of the USSR before its break up. RK is a truly phenomenal writer who believes that you cannot write about something unless you have been there and experienced something 'with your own skin'. He is incapable of writing a dull word. The book consists of his travels to eg Ukraine, his experiences, observations and comments. What he sees and does is absolutely fascinating. He has the ability to capture the essence of a place through pen pictures so the reader really feels informed but his writing is utterly varied, lucid and descriptive. If you have an enquiring mind you will love this book. RK should have got the Nobel Prize for literature!

MORE THAN A TRAVEL BOOK..., 01 Feb 2002
After reading the first few pages I knew I would be forever a fan of Ryszard Kapuscinksi. Writing in a captivating and extremely enjoyable prose, Ryszard attempts to convey the recent history of the Soviet Union and more so its ressiliant and inhabitants. Travelling across the USSR as it begins to crumble, Ryszard describes the strength and endurance of those who survived the cold oppression of the soviet regime. After finishing this book I had the burning urge to read more of this brilliant journalist and can't wait to sample some of his other books.

Interesting read, 15 Dec 2002
I read this book after hearing about it from the open university, and i wasn't dissapointed. It gives a perspective of the two wars that many historians including teachers never touch upon. The concept of total war is given significant space which will make you rethink the criterea of a so called 'total'war'. It covers the two war with a smooth transition covering some of the post-war aspects of european society. I would highly recommend this book to people of all educational backgrounds be it A-level or degree status.

A depressed state, 19 Jun 2008
Anna Politkovskaya hates Akaky Putin. Really hates him. She says so in one of the final chapters, speaking as a Muscovite who has no desire to relive the Soviet union of the 70s and 80s.

This is a brave and shocking book. It is basically several chapters listing the ills of Russia under Putin. It is worth noting at this point that a lot of the troubles started under Yeltsin but Putin's inertia or even condoning of the situation has exacerbated the problems greatly.

It starts with the Russian army, committing horrific crimes in Chechnya in the name of counter-terrorism. One chapter deals with the rape and murder of a village girl by a drunken colonel. What makes this story worthy of note is not the crimes, but the fact that the colonel was actually punished for it. It takes a brave and determined prosecutor in Russia to make military crimes stick.

Another chapter deals with individuals and how they fared under the new regime. Those who adapted and learnt how to play the system (i.e. bribe) prospered. A talented scientist who found the state safety net taken away foundered and inevitably turned to drink. A nuclear submarine commander goes unpaid for months on end feeding his family on meager rations. His whole crew walk to work with no money for petrol in the navy town of Kamchatka.

The most outrageous chapter was entitled "How to Misappropriate Property with the Connivance of government". We are not talking paper clips here. We are talking oil and utility companies, taken at will by the mafia with strong-arm tactics and forged documents with genuine shareholders held back at roadblocks by the police in the pay of the oligarchs. Think the Kray twins walking into Canary Wharf and taking control of BP with the help of the Met Police and you're getting half of the picture.

This is not a book about Putin. We do not learn much about him apart from the fact he is ex-KGB and his stance reflects that. Whereas not seen to encourage it, in his country war crimes, corruption and poverty go unchecked. State assets have been divided up amongst the few as the rich get richer. The country outside Moscow seems so be of little interest and the have-nots in the capital and beyond have no voice and no fight in them to voice their anger at their country's betrayal. They know their voices will not be heard.

This is not a cohesive and definitive book on the new Russia or Putin, and so is not a fluent read but what Politkovskaya says has to be taken notice of.




Postscript - On October 7, 2006, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow







Useful but flawed., 15 Jan 2006
This contains some useful journalism. Some of the reports are searing in their clarity and certainly reflect and enhance my first-hand knowledge of Russia. Unfortunately, the author doesn't know when to omit unnecessary details, at times appears just to have welded together a series of interviews and major events and hasn't organised the book coherently.

In making her points, the author is at times contradictory, presenting unpunished misconduct as evidence of untrammeled corruption and abuse of power and then referring to appropriate sanctions in the end-notes. Worse still, her analysis of the country's situation is superficial, bar-room stuff, her case against Putin himself unproven.

Criminal State, 13 Aug 2005
The brave Anna Politkovskaya revealed the reality of Russia today in this sad, sometimes horrifying book. After a brief window period of freedom under Yeltsin, Russia has rapidly become a vast swamp of corruption, oppression and deception under Putin. Anna paid with her life for her courageous opposition to the ruling class.

Politkovskaya tells of the trouble and suffering of ordinary people who are humiliated and exploited by the criminal nomenklatura. For example Nina Levurda, who in trying to establish the truth about her son's death in the Chechen War, became a victim of this system that when not cruel, is completely indifferent to the individual. This and other cases are discussed in the chapter My Country's Army And Its Mothers.

In Russia, people imitate the man at the top, thus Putin is the one who shapes Russian society. It is mainly he who is to blame for the brutality and extremism prevalent in the army and the state apparatus. There are sections dealing with war criminals, brutality against privates in the military, government complicity in crime, the corruption in the judiciary, the struggle to survive in places like Kamchatka, and racism against people with a non-Slavic appearance.

Russia's stability is of a monstrous type, where power means everything, few people hold the law in any regard, bribes keep business and the state running, and a free press has almost disappeared. Putin's bureaucrats have taken corruption to new records, unheard of even under Yeltsin or the Communists. As a lieutenant-colonel who never made it to the rank of colonel, he has the mentality of a Soviet secret policeman. The Yukos affair and the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky demonstrate what a vindictive little man Putin is and how he is steering the country towards fascism.

This process of crushing dissent and stifling freedom has been escalating throughout Putin's first presidential term and shows no sign of abating during the second. The Western press has mostly not showed great interest in this slide to oppression in Russia. It is hard not to write Russia off when confronted by the experiences in this book: the deliberate cruelties, the cold indifference and the manipulation of the media. Mercifully there are still people like Lev Ponomarev who are brave enough to speak out. This disturbing book concludes with explanatory notes containing references.

If you read one book on present day Russia - this is it!, 19 Oct 2004
Anna Politkovskaya is a hero for all she has done to carry the torch of humanity and civil rights in present day Russia. She has seen the dark under-belly of Putin's Russia through her terrifying experiences in war-torn Chechnya, as a mediator in the Nord Ost siege and lately by being poisoning at the hands of the Russian Security Services whilst en route to Beslan.

Her writing is superbly erudite as one would expect of someone who has been at the cutting edge of Russian journalism through the cataclysmic collapse of the USSR and the tumultuous ninties. She paints a bleak, but not hopeless, picture of how Putin has exploited the war on terror to roll back Russian democracy, freedom of speech and fundamental civil rights. Russia is being systematically regressed into a quasi-dictatorship and so a new menace is rising on the door step of Europe.

Putin is devestatingly deconstructed to reveal a KGB apparachik whose outlook on the world is shaped through the prism of a repressive, but deeply manipulative, secret police mindset.

This is book is a call to all decent and freedom loving people to look beyond the Russia of popular cariciature and see the true state of a long suffering and manipulated people.

Politkovskaya's is a rare voice in present day Russia and she deserves to be heard.

Superb work - essential reading!, 18 Oct 2004
Anna Politkovskaya is a hero for all she has done to carry the torch of humanity and civil rights in present day Russia. She has seen the dark under-belly of Putin's Russia through her terrifying experiences in war-torn Chechnya, as a mediator in the Nord Ost siege and lately by being poisoning at the hands of the Russian Security Services whilst en route to Beslan.

Her writing is superbly erudite as one would expect of someone who has been at the cutting edge of Russian journalism through the cataclysmic collapse of the USSR and the tumultuous ninties. She paints a bleak, but not hopeless, picture of how Putin has exploited the war on terror to roll back Russian democracy, freedom of speech and fundamental civil rights. Russia is being systematically regressed into a quasi-dictatorship and so a new menace is rising on the door step of Europe.

Putin is devestatingly deconstructed to reveal a KGB apparachik whose outlook on the world is shaped through the prism of a repressive, but deeply manipulative, secret police mindset.

This is book is a call to all sane and freedom loving people to look beyond the Russia of popular cariciature and see the true state of a long suffering and manipulated people.

Politkovskaya's is a rare voice in present day Russia and she deserves to be heard.

Absorbing, 24 Nov 2008
I bought this book as an extra when buying something else. I planned to read it on holiday, but it arrived three days before I left and I made the mistake of dipping into it beforehand. It was a mistake because my total absorbtion in this autobiography left me with no more than a few pages to read on my trip. It is a long time since I learned so much from a book. Ayaan writes simply, and without rancour about a life that appears beyond belief to a western male. It is a wonderful, literary achievement that deserves our attention.


Inspirational, 17 Oct 2008
I could not put this book down. In my entire life and professional career, and in dealing with refugees from the countries where she grew up, I have never seen such evidence of courage, fortitude and perseverance as this young lady has demonstrated in the face of unspeakable atrocities. She is an example to us all. When all around her were prepared blindly to accept religious dogma, as it was taught to us, she used her intellect and remained true to that intellect. To my mind, she is probably the most remarkable woman ever. She appears kind and caring of all of her fellow humans. Although not on the cover of this book, there are photos of her on the web which show that she has a very beautiful smile to complement her intellect. In my opinion this book should be compulsory reading for all teenagers before they leave school. Very well done Ayaan.

Riveting autobiography & illuminating history, 20 Jun 2008
It's rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the absorbing writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, Ayaan spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, recounting what it was like to live there through the eyes of a child.

She gives a lively account of the history of Somalia under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the rigidy of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates with her descriptions of places and people. One of her most salient memories is the obsessive Antisemitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Far from stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate with empathy the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

Infidel is also about a second journey: A journey of the mind from the strictures of stifling, oppressive faith to the liberation of enlightenment and the embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of these developments in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment and appreciation when she discovered Dutch society where even the police were friendly and helpful and where everything worked. Ayaan clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of the culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she studied the great Western philosophers.

Sometimes harrowing, the story of Infidel includes innocent childhood memories, mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements. It is clear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.


Infidel, 07 Jun 2008
This is a vivid, highly readable and fascinating memoir. It is a true page turner that jumps straight into the narrative and leads you along at pace, unlike any autobiography I have read in years. Her story and her intellectual transformation are an important perspective in our highly charged religious climate. This a fabulous piece of writing. Read this book.

She admited to be a liar!, 30 Apr 2008
This book has very little truth in it and her claims of being oppressed in her homeland was proven to be a fabrication she made up to immigrate to the Netherlands where she later was thrown out of! Now she's trying to make some money by publishing the same lie again! I mean seriously, how gullible do you have to be to fall into the exact same nonsense twice?

Fascinating, but not to be read as a history book, 26 Aug 2008
I picked this up after watching "The Lives of Others." The book is well written, mixing evocative (sometimes over-elaborate) reflections with a much more sparse style when retelling some of the scarcely believable stories of the misery of life in the GDR. Some of her observations are very sharp, such as her objection to items which are still of live interest being put on display in a museum. I thought the ending was disappointing. However, books like this are often nothing more than expanded magazine articles, a charge that cannot be made here. Recommended.

An insight into East Germany, 19 Nov 2007
I had this book bought for me many months ago, but left it on the shelf until recently.
Having little or no insight into the problems of living in East Germany, I found it very well written, and very engaging. Incidently it is written as non-fiction, but presented in such a narrative way that you would think it was ficticious, and for me reading history is made easier when presented in that format.
It was a grim but interesting journey into life under the control of the 'stasi'. This police state, controlled not only by the state, but also by ordinary people in the street forced into having to 'work' for the state, to control the citizens by some of the most cruel methods, makes for a painful read. It highlights a period before 'The Wall' came down, where Russian communist control continued the deprivations of WW11.

Total Information Awareness, 29 Aug 2007
Anna Funder gives a sharply cut and moving (in)human face to the now defunct German Democratic Republic by interviewing former Stasi members (the top, foreign spies, informants, organizers) and their direct or indirect victims.
In `a world where there was nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and where anyone who wanted to do anything other than serve the Party, risked persecution or worse', the Stasi's aim was to know everything about everybody with all means, even radiation. As the author poetically states: everybody had `a mirror Nemesis' in a Stasi department. The result was that everyone suspected everyone else and turned into an `internal emigration' for the sheltering of their secret inner lives.
In fact, the Stasi was a formidable organization (one informant for every 6,5 citizens) created in order to defend the government against its own people.
Anna Funder exposes the real Stasi mentality: `The most important thing you have is power" (Chief E. Mielke). Its colossal archives were partly shredded after the fall of the Berlin Wall (15000 sacks) and are being puzzled together. A truly Herculean task.
The author paints a society built on ideological fiction (human nature was a work-in-progress which could be improved by Communism) and on blatant lies (a multi-party democracy, no former Nazis, not responsible for the Holocaust).
But what is left after the collapse? A `Wall in the Head'. The victims are still heavily marked (psychological damage by the terrifying effect of total surveillance) and some Stasi men still hope that the Wall will be built again.

Anna Funder wrote a formidable evocation of life in a communist one party state protected by a wall.
A must read.


Personal, and great for it., 03 Jan 2007
Like negative reviews here, I agree that this is a very personal book. However, I do not accept this is a valid criticism - it never claims to be anything else, and it is also warm, vivid, fascinating and well written. These are stories from the past, and (almost) present that collectively provide a rich and absorbing picture. It's not an endlessly footnoted history text...so what?

Disappointing, 30 Oct 2006
The history of the Stasi and their place in the DDR regime could make a fascinating and important book. This, unfortunately, is not that book. Instead, this is the journal of an Australian writer living in eastern Germany as she meets various people with experience of the Stasi. It reads rather like a travel book, and - like most travel writers - Ms Funder believes that she is more interesting than her subject. We are treated to repetitive and pointless accounts of her thoughts, her train and bus journeys, her dreams, and her time spent doing nothing in her almost-empty apartment.

The real content of the book consists of 11 interviews with people connected (as employees or victims) with the Stasi. Except in two cases, Ms Funder makes her interviewees into charicatures (the heroic victim who refused to betray her friend, the raving former propogandist, the swave covert operative in a black BMW) and has often told us how to judge them before she has even met them. Their stories are compelling, but they are constantly interrupted by Ms Funder's descriptions of her own reactions. The repeated interjections of "I'm startled", "I think to myself...", "I imagine..." are tiresome.

I am judging this book harshly because it has been so celebrated elsewhere. In particular, I am disappointed that the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize undermined the value of their prize by awarding it in 2004 to this superficial and journalistic account of an important subject.

The best book I have read about the old USSR, 13 Aug 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziard's childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family managed to avoid it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. I nearly cried when he told of the time when his teacher said the sweet shop was closing and they were giving away free sweets. All the children queued all night in the wind and snow to wait for the shop to open only to be given the empty sweet jars - just one each.

In his position as the only foreign correspondent in Poland he moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us haven't heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness, demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin that had taken over 40 years to build, with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in descriptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great. Permalink | Why no voting buttons?

Best ever book about the USSR, 06 Jun 2008
This is the very best book to encourage any interest in the former USSR it is a truly truly amazing book. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the Soviets during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family avoided it, with his mother staying awake all night long to alert the children if necessary to go into hiding, moving and poignant. He then moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. So bizarre, so interesting. Funny, sad, gripping and so true to life in desciptions of human nature. Do read this if you are even vaguely interested in the USSR, it is great.

The best ever book about the old USSR, 04 Jun 2008
Truly truly amazing book by a great journalist who went forth fearlessly where others would not dare. It starts in Pinsk, Poland in an area now called Belarus which was occupied by the USSR during Ryziards childhood and he describes the cruel deportation of 200 000 people to Siberia and how his family miraculously avoided it. He moves around to different parts of the USSR and there is always a great tale to tell about places most of us havent heard of from the oil fields of Azerbejan to the desert of Turkmenestan. Snippets of information, stories, anecdotes, for example how Stalin in his madness demolished the beautiful cathedral next to the Kremlin with a plan to build a skyscraper 5 times the size of the empire state building with a statue of Lenin atop. The incredible cruelty of Stalin's illiterate henchment is laid bare here with true stories from places that would be hell on earth in any circumstances. So bizarre, so interesting. Do read this if you are atall interested in the USSR it is great.

A truly great book , 09 Jan 2008
Ryszard Kapuscinski was an award winning international reporter who grew up in Poland and spent 40 years in Africa where he experienced 27 revolutions! Imperium is his account of life in the 'colonies' of the USSR before its break up. RK is a truly phenomenal writer who believes that you cannot write about something unless you have been there and experienced something 'with your own skin'. He is incapable of writing a dull word. The book consists of his travels to eg Ukraine, his experiences, observations and comments. What he sees and does is absolutely fascinating. He has the ability to capture the essence of a place through pen pictures so the reader really feels informed but his writing is utterly varied, lucid and descriptive. If you have an enquiring mind you will love this book. RK should have got the Nobel Prize for literature!

MORE THAN A TRAVEL BOOK..., 01 Feb 2002
After reading the first few pages I knew I would be forever a fan of Ryszard Kapuscinksi. Writing in a captivating and extremely enjoyable prose, Ryszard attempts to convey the recent history of the Soviet Union and more so its ressiliant and inhabitants. Travelling across the USSR as it begins to crumble, Ryszard describes the strength and endurance of those who survived the cold oppression of the soviet regime. After finishing this book I had the burning urge to read more of this brilliant journalist and can't wait to sample some of his other books.

Interesting read, 15 Dec 2002
I read this book after hearing about it from the open university, and i wasn't dissapointed. It gives a perspective of the two wars that many historians including teachers never touch upon. The concept of total war is given significant space which will make you rethink the criterea of a so called 'total'war'. It covers the two war with a smooth transition covering some of the post-war aspects of european society. I would highly recommend this book to people of all educational backgrounds be it A-level or degree status.

A depressed state, 19 Jun 2008
Anna Politkovskaya hates Akaky Putin. Really hates him. She says so in one of the final chapters, speaking as a Muscovite who has no desire to relive the Soviet union of the 70s and 80s.

This is a brave and shocking book. It is basically several chapters listing the ills of Russia under Putin. It is worth noting at this point that a lot of the troubles started under Yeltsin but Putin's inertia or even condoning of the situation has exacerbated the problems greatly.

It starts with the Russian army, committing horrific crimes in Chechnya in the name of counter-terrorism. One chapter deals with the rape and murder of a village girl by a drunken colonel. What makes this story worthy of note is not the crimes, but the fact that the colonel was actually punished for it. It takes a brave and determined prosecutor in Russia to make military crimes stick.

Another chapter deals with individuals and how they fared under the new regime. Those who adapted and learnt how to play the system (i.e. bribe) prospered. A talented scientist who found the state safety net taken away foundered and inevitably turned to drink. A nuclear submarine commander goes unpaid for months on end feeding his family on meager rations. His whole crew walk to work with no money for petrol in the navy town of Kamchatka.

The most outrageous chapter was entitled "How to Misappropriate Property with the Connivance of government". We are not talking paper clips here. We are talking oil and utility companies, taken at will by the mafia with strong-arm tactics and forged documents with genuine shareholders held back at roadblocks by the police in the pay of the oligarchs. Think the Kray twins walking into Canary Wharf and taking control of BP with the help of the Met Police and you're getting half of the picture.

This is not a book about Putin. We do not learn much about him apart from the fact he is ex-KGB and his stance reflects that. Whereas not seen to encourage it, in his country war crimes, corruption and poverty go unchecked. State assets have been divided up amongst the few as the rich get richer. The country outside Moscow seems so be of little interest