Please Live

Get in the xigxag app
Already purchased

Click to open directly in the xigxag app.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book. Pre-order Buy Now £{{ price }} Send as a gift
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

'Powerful . . . a coming-of-age story with a twist' Guardian

'Heart-wrenching . . . We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book' Telegraph

'A profound and moving tribute . . . It is Lana's inside perspective on what it was like to grow up within this society that makes this such a unique and powerful book' Sunday Times

'Wonderfully brave, beautifully written and utterly authentic' TLS

'Haunting' Radio Times

'Please live' were the last words fifteen-year-old Lana said to her mother. Shortly afterwards Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped outside their apartment block in Grozny, Chechnya. On 15th July 2009, she was murdered for telling the truth.

A mountainous sliver of land which creates a natural boundary between Europe and Asia, for centuries Chechnya had been a sharp bone in Russia's throat. Three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, frustrated by the continued presence of the independence movement within Chechnya, Russia invaded.


It was a war of extraordinary brutality. It turned Lana's mother, Natalia Estemirova, from a teacher into a human rights investigator. She became a dedicated member of Memorial, intent on exposing the kidnappings, bombings, torture and murders committed by Russian forces and Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen President. Natalia Estemirova's life, assassination, and the impunity that followed it, tell the story of Putin's Russia.

This is Lana's story of growing up in a war. Of the intense bond between a mother and daughter, desperate to be together even though it was so much safer for Lana to live elsewhere, often for months at a time. It is a book both about being brave and about being ordinary in extraordinary times. It's the fulfilment of a promise Lana made at her mother's grave.

Critics Review

Powerful . . . a coming-of-age story with a twist
Guardian
A profound and moving tribute . . . It is Lana's inside perspective on what it was like to grow up within this society that makes this such a unique and powerful book. It is also a moving account of the relationship between a highly-driven mother and her long-suffering daughter . . . She has done her mother proud
Sunday Times
The heart-wrenching final quarter of Please Live . . . culminates with the story of her mother's assassination and Lana's grief. These passages are painful to read. But if one lesson we have learnt from Russia's barbarism in Ukraine is the importance of empathy, another is that our empathy has limits: far from the front line, we're unlikely to find ourselves feeling the howling anguish, despair and disbelief of someone who has lost loved ones to war. We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book to show us what that feels like, and to understand
Sunday Telegraph
This saddening yet wonderfully brave book is Lana's story of growing up in the not-that-safe space created by her mother, caught between the twin shadows of Putin's killing machine and the torture engines of his Chechen quisling, Ramzan Kadyrovv . . . Please Live is beautifully written and utterly authentic, told through the eyes of a young girl looking out on a world made mad by bad actors.
Times Literary Supplement
Haunting . . . a memoir about growing up during the Chechyan wars
Radio Times
Has much to say about the way Russia seeks to bring the inhabitants of its hinterlands to heel.
BBC History
Extraordinary
Foreign Policy
An extraordinarily powerful tribute to her mother . . . and a vivid account of what it is like to grow up in a war zone . . . There is nothing sentimental about this memoir. It is searingly honest
New European
Estemirova's courageous Please Live is both a tender tribute to her mother . . . and a searing indictment of human rights abuses in Chechnya, state violence and impunity . . . It's beautifully written - a moving account of a precarious childhood, her mother's unflinching dedication to justice and their defiant love for one another
The Tablet

About xigxag

Experience the best audiobooks with xigxag, an innovative and user-friendly audiobook platform designed for seamless discovery, purchase, and enjoyment of your favorite titles. Our flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less, providing affordable prices and the best audiobook deals without requiring a subscription. Perfect for gifting, xigxag also features convenient audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

 

Beyond the listening experience, xigxag stands as an exciting alternative to big tech, embodying a strong commitment to sustainability and ethical practices. As the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service, we ensure a guilt-free listening experience from a leader in audiobook innovation.

 

Effortlessly search audiobooks, access honest audiobook reviews that evaluate both the content and narration, and easily discover hidden gems. Whether you prefer to download or stream top audiobook titles, xigxag provides the best possible listening experience anytime, anywhere, on the UK’s best independent audiobook app. Discover the future of audiobooks today.