From activist Pussy Riot member & freedom fighter Maria Alyokhina a raw hallucinatory passionate account of her arrest trial & imprisonment in a penal colony in the Urals for standing up for what she believed in' One of the most brilliant & inspiring things I've read in years Couldn't put it down This book is freedom' Chris Kraus author of I Love Dick' Reading RIOT DAYS by Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina A women's prison memoir like no other! One tough cookie!' Margaret Atwood' In oppressive political systems some of the most effective weapons are sarcasm & dark humour It is exactly these weapons that are employed by Masha Alyokhina in the brilliantly written Riot Days Once you begin reading you are completely disarmed unable to put it down until the last page' Marina Abramovic People who believe in freedom & democracy think it will exist forever That is a mistake What happened in Russia
- what happened to me
- could happen anywhere When I was jailed for political protest I learned that prison doesn't just teach you to follow the rules It teaches you to think that you can never break them It's inevitable that the prison gates will open at some point But this doesn't mean that you leave the 'prisoner' category & go straight into the category of 'the free' Freedom does not exist unless you fight for it every day This is the story about how I made a choice We are all Pussy Riot And actions break fear ' To Back Down an Inch is to Give Up a Mile'