In this exceptional memoir, former Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina recounts the run up to and aftermath of the performance that had her arrested for "hooliganism" in 2012, documenting her time on the run, her arrest, trial and subsequent incarceration in a number of human-rights flouting prisons and penal colonies. Writing in stark and yet intensely poetic prose, she explores her experiences as an uncompromising dissident, a member of a collective, a fierce human rights activist, a friend, a mother. Strength and sheer will permeate this text and it is impossible not to be moved, impressed, downright astounded by Alyokhina's resilience, fortitude and clarity in the face of oppressive adversity. You really need to read this.

'We wrote and, letter by letter, we became a revolutionary statement'

Arrested for 'hooliganism' in a Moscow cathedral, this is Alyokhina's account of her arrest, trial and 2-year imprisonment in penal camps in the Urals. Young, intellectual, self-aware, her writing is fragmented yet vivid, locating itself alongside other texts of repression and institutional absurdity (1984, The Trial): 'officially there are no political prisoners in the Russian criminal justice system. But, in official quarters, they called me a 'political' - a political prisoner, that it.'

Impressionistic, angry, absolutely committed and unrepentant, not without a black sense of humour, Alyokhina confronts modern Russia head-on and refuses to step down: 'Freedom doesn't exist unless you fight for it every day.' An important proponent of where art, feminism and activism coalesce.

Alyokhina is not a writer but has a strong voice and describes her experiences with humour and anger. This short memoir describes the protest she went to prison for, her trial and life in prison. She inspires with her defiant politics in the face of grinding bureaucracy and arbitrary abuse.