Patriot

Author Alexei Navalny
Publisher Penguin £10.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781529933659

Every era has its heroes. Alexi Navalny is one of ours, but his heroism is of a particularly discomfiting kind. For most of us, his decision to return to Russia from Germany, after an almost-successful attempt on his life in 2020, lies somewhere on the line between bewildering and indefensible: the inducements to lead his opposition party from a distance were so strong, incarceration so certain, death so likely. And yet, Navalny’s determination not to abandon the people and country he loved holds out a stunningly Christian hope and promise. Atheist by birth and by intellectual persuasion, Navalny describes the moment when, in the face of his new-born daughter, his godless certainties tumbled, and faith arose. It is an almost Pauline conversion, told very simply. This is not a book about faith, but it is about a life whose outrageous altruism and courageous leadership are made possible by confidence in and connection to God who, in words smuggled out of the corrective colony where he died, is the one Alexei credits with ‘[taking] my punches for me’. This is a big, brave book. Read it!

Reviewed by DEE MOLTON

Autobiography