Rainsford's writing-on the war, on the Kremlin's indomitable opponents, on the contrasts between Russia's harsh realities and the warmth of its people-is vivid and compelling.

Foreign Affairs

Goodbye to Russia is a harrowing and haunting, heartbreaking and humbling testament to lives torn and blown apart by the evil that men do, and the fear and complicity that makes others do nothing, and quite simply the best and most powerful book I've read this year

David Peace

This is an extraordinary book, one of the most evocative portraits of Vladimir Putin's Russia I have ever read. It's the story of how the hopes of the early 1990s rotted and died, and how intimidation and deception triumphed over truth and freedom. Rooted in the lives of the brave men and women who dared to defy Putin's regime, it's beautifully written and passionately argued – and all the more powerful because Sarah Rainsford so clearly loves Russia's people and culture. A magnificent book

Dominic Sandbrook

A poignant personal farewell to a country lost to dictatorship and a vivid testimony to the bravery of those who tried to stand in the way. Sarah Rainsford's book is a remarkable eye-witness account of Russia's descent into authoritarianism and war, as well as a wonderful feat of storytelling threaded with quiet humour and grit

Catherine Belton, author of PUTIN'S PEOPLE

An astonishing book. Elegiac, personal, passionate. A unique eye-witness account, spanning decades and capturing the hopes and despair of families grappling with the brutal realities of Putinism. If you want to understand how Russia lost its way and invaded Ukraine, read this heartfelt, heart-breaking tale of ordinary people caught up in the madness of the Kremlin's thuggery

Andrew Harding

Epic and yet intimate: a definitive portrait of hopes, fears and a changing Russia, as observed over three decades

Mishal Husain