Words Will Break Cement

Praise for WORDS WILL BREAK CEMENT: THE PASSION OF PUSSY RIOT Urgent ... damning ... Much here will be new to the American reader. All of it is infuriating. -Alexander Nazaryan, The New York Times Remarkable...Masha Gessen [is] one of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation... disquieting, moving, and closely reported. -David Remnick, The New Yorker The fullest account so far of the Pussy Riot story... A moving object lesson in the power of art -- perhaps especially messy and exuberant art -- to rise above repression and have the last, cement-breaking word. -Sara Marcus, Los Angeles Times Valuable for its insights into the modern cultural history of Russia, with all its idealistic muddles, dead-ends and false starts ... ideal for those curious about the country behind the Games. - The Economist What makes someone into a dissident? Why do some people give up everything -- home, family, job -- to embark on a career of protest? ... Gessen set out to answer this question ... in this excellent short account. - The Washington Post A compulsively readable book that explains in unflinching terms the tragedy that is modern Russia... Words Will Break Cement is an instant classic, destined to take its place with Solzhenitsyn's writings about the Gulag... one comes away...marveling at the courage of the Pussy Riot members making a stand against tyranny while demonstrating the willingness to pay a steep price - New York Journal of Books Riveting... [Gessen] is a sharp observer of people and events, and she tells Pussy Riot's story in a lively style that is somehow casual, precise, and powerful all at once. She has written a terrific book, a compelling story of three creative women who courageously attacked a repressive regime by disrupting the spectacle of its propaganda. - The Rumpus The significance of Words Will Break Cement. ..is its demonstrati