Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches [Paperback]

Anna Politkovskaya (Author), Arch Tait (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: March 16, 2011

A collection of final dispatches by the famed journalist, including the first translation of the work that may have led to her murder

Anna Politkovskaya won international fame for her courageous reporting. Is Journalism Worth Dying For? is a long-awaited collection of her final writing.

Beginning with a brief introduction by the author about her pariah status, the book contains essays that characterize the self-effacing Politkovskaya more fully than she allowed in her other books. From deeply personal statements about the nature of journalism, to horrendous reports from Chechnya, to sensitive pieces of memoir, to, finally, the first translation of the series of investigative reports that Politkovskaya was working on at the time of her murder—pieces many believe led to her assassination.

Elsewhere, there are illuminating accounts of encounters with leaders including Lionel Jospin, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and such exiled figures as Boris Berezovsky, Akhmed Zakaev,  Vladimir Bukovsky. Additional sections collect Politkovskaya’s non-political writing, revealing her delightful wit, deep humanity, and willingness to engage with the unfamiliar, as well as her deep regrets about the fate of Russia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Is Journalism Worth Dying For?

"Is Journalism Worth Dying For? is a book of sustained moral witness....a plangent document of journalistic heroism."
—Dwight Garner, New York Times 

"Of all the investigative reporters I've been acquainted with, Politkovskaya might have embodied the most remarkable combination of courage (some might call it foolhardiness) and talent...Is Journalism Worth Dying For? is a marvelous testament to her courage and skill."
—Steve Weinberg, San Francisco Chronicle

"There is pathos and sorrow in these pages, but also hope and lightness...beautifully, even lyrically, written."
—Michael J. Bonafield, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Her enduring importance derives from her refusal to capitulate despite seemingly unbearable pressure--and, even more basically, her commitment to rigorous on-the-ground reporting when journalists, even when not faced with official intimidation, spend more time with PR flacks than sources and vicitims."
—Jason Farago, Barnes and Noble Review 

"An essential book for budding Russia hands, followers of world events and fans of good journalism."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review 

"An inspiring collection."
—Booklist

Praise for Anna Politkovskaya

“Suppression of freedom of speech, of expression, reaches its savage ultimate in the murder of a writer. Anna Politkovskaya refused to lie in her work; her murder is a ghastly act, and an attack on world literature.”
—Nadine Gordimer

"Anna Politkovskaya defined the human conscience. Her relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of danger and darkness testifies to her distinguished place in journalism—and humanity.” —Christiane Amanpour, anchor of ABC News This Week

“She is the voice of conscience faced with brutal inhumanity and the peril that goes with it. But this superb collection of the pieces she wrote for Novaya gazeta adds another dimension. It measures her as a journalist against other journalists round the world. It reveals a superb original technician.”
—Peter Preston, The Observer

“Like all great investigative reporters, Anna Politkovskaya brought forward human truths that rewrote the official story. We will continue to read her, and learn from her, for years.”
—Salman Rushdie

About the Author

ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA (born 1958 in New York City) was a special correspondent for the Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta and the author of A Dirty War; A Small Corner of Hell; Putin’s Russia; and A Russian Diary. She was murdered in Moscow on October 7, 2006.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Melville House; Tra edition (March 16, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935554409
• ISBN-13: 978-1935554400
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Daunting, spectacular, difficult, necessary July 23, 2011

By Julian G Halliday

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I didn't want to finish this book. Not because it isn't spectacularly good; it is. But it's heartbreaking, and full of things I'd rather not know and which it is painful to know. And, of course, knowing how it ends -- Politkovskaya's murder, almost certainly as a means of stopping her potent, accurate, unassailably researched critique of war-criminality and gangsterish behaviour reaching to the top levels of the Russian Federation's government -- doesn't make it any easier. But I did finish reading, out of a sense of duty, a desire to to do this tiny thing -- simply read a book -- as a mark of respect for its author. Anyway, all that aside: read the damn book! If you're reading this review, you're undoubtedly interested to start with. It's easy to admire the courage of someone who was a martyr to speaking truth to power; it's typically less simple to see how brave they are when they're doing it. Anna Politkovskaya was celebrated for just that reason -- courage, and also lucidity, integrity, persuasiveness, simple good writing -- long before she was murdered; she knew the odds, and to hear V. Putin damning her with faint praise after her death combines the ludicrous with the abjectly disgusting. One could also do far worse than turn to Politkovskaya for a completely straightforward account of why war is, in our times more than ever, a tax of horror levied on civilians without remorse or reason.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder for Words September 9, 2011

By Mike B

Format:Paperback

This is a collection of news stories by the assassinated Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. It should also be emphasized that she is only one of several journalists who have been killed in Russia in recent years.

It is more than hinted at in this book that Russia, under Putin, is regressing democratically and becoming more and more totalitarian. The long and authoritarian past of Russian history is re-emerging. The war in Chechnya illustrates this well - Ms. Politkovskaya documents the continual atrocities and the lack of attempt by Russia to establish any semblance of a beneficial regime to the people of Chechnya. She reports on abductions, beatings, tortures and killings perpetrated with the full cognizance of the Russian army and it myriad secret service organizations.

The stories are by subject - so sometimes the chronology becomes confusing as you read through different chapters. Also, if one is unfamiliar with the recent history of Russian involvement in Chechnya, as I am, the glossary at the end proves useful.

Two stories in particular caught my attention: the fiasco of the Russian government to extradite Ahmed Zakayev from England and the passionate article on the Norwegian nurse who was murdered in Starye Atagi. There are many eloquent testimonials to Ms. Politkovskaya at the end; however the one of Vladimir Putin is telling indeed.

It is very sad when a fledgling democracy reverts back to the days of Stalin, Lenin and the Czars - when the printed word summons an execution.

As I read the journalism of this brave woman, I hope, that we in the West also have the fortitude to continue to expose the mismanagement of our governments; that, as Ms. Politkovskaya suggests, are we not sinking into a comfortable complacency?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A dangerous job in Russia October 5, 2011

By eclecticreviewer

Format:Paperback

Anna Politkovskaya was a correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya. The definition of a hero in many people's eyes is a person who is admired for courage or noble qualities. Anna was more than a hero. She was the voice of the Russian people...the suppressed, the murdered, the victimized. She was extremely brave to speak out for the atrocities done to the people in Chechnya and other parts of Russia. She was murdered in her apartment in 2006.

This book is written in Anna's words in the format of news stories and investigative reports she had done over several years. She is one of many Russian journalists who has been murdered under Vladimir Putin's regime and the judicial process for these murders, promised by Putin, are slow and lacking in conviction.

This is a very eye-opening book for those who do not know the details of what has been going in Russia for the last several years. It is a dangerous and many times fatal job to be a journalist in Russia and I commend newspapers like the Novaya Gazeta for hiring the people who take the risk for the good of the Russian people. They will have their hands full now that President Putin has announced that he will seek a third non-consecutive term in the 2012 presidential elections.

Thank you to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this book.