SHORTLISTED FOR THE PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRES DEBUT NON-FICTION
PRIZE 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHERBORNE PRIZE FOR TRAVEL WRITING 2026 'A different level
of insight to anything I've read for a long time about Russia.' - Sophy Roberts author of The
Lost Pianos of Siberia ' Exquisitely observed.. Full of empathy Amos refuses easy
stereotypes. ' - Tom Parfitt author of High Caucasus Returning to an overlooked region on
the edge of Russia Howard Amos sets out on a quest to understand the country he once called
home. On Russia's European borderlands people live their lives among the ruins of successive
empires. Pskov an old Slavic land of forgotten stories and faded waysides has weathered the
tides of history. Once a thriving nexus of trade and cultural exchange today it is one of the
poorest and most rapidly depopulating places of this vast nation. To understand the darkness
that has captured Russia Howard Amos journeys through a landscape of small towns re-wilding
fields and dilapidated churches. This is a lyrical portrait of Russia where it meets NATO and
the EU - a place of frontiers and boundaries that reveals unfamiliar and uncomfortable truths.
In a country where history has been erased manipulated and marginalised the voices Howard
Amos spotlights are a powerful antidote against forgetting. From the last inhabitants of a
dying village to the long-term residents of a psychiatric hospital and a museum curator
fighting local opposition to chronicle Pskov's forgotten Jewish heritage Howard Amos uncovers
compelling stories that are shaped by violence tragedy and loss. He also encounters some of
the powerful men who have loomed over Pskov leaving a troubling legacy in their wake from
far-right politicians to Putin's personal priest.
