With her unique perspective and ability to get ordinary Russians talking, Norway’s leading non-fiction author, fluent in Russian, offers a deep dive into a country many have opinions about, but few know beneath the surface. The people she meets together form a fascinating picture of Putin’s Russia, at a time when understanding our large neighbour to the east is more important than ever.

As Russia isolates itself from Europe and many Western media outlets recall their correspondents, Seierstad sets out on a long journey back to the country where she once studied and later wrote her very first article.

Between January 2023 and April 2025, she undertakes several journeys across the vast country. She takes readers to the Siberian countryside, where Putin recruits his soldiers, and to the cities, where people do their best to keep the war from affecting daily life. On her travels, she meets supporters of the regime, the indifferent, and those who resist. She moves in with a peasant woman, witnesses a failed mutiny, and meets the regime’s persecuted and harassed—the so-called “foreign agents.”

In conversation with Tom Hetland, former editor-in-chief of Stavanger Aftenblad.