Matthews wins annual £10,000 Pushkin House Book Prize for Overreach

Owen Matthews, a journalist with over 25 years’ experience covering Russia, has won the annual £10,000 Pushkin House Book Prize for Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine (Mudlark).

The book explores the historical roots of the conflict, from the Covid bubble when Russian president Vladimir Putin conceived his invasion plans to the inner circle around Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. It features accounts of current and former Kremlin insiders, testimonies of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine.

The prize is awarded to the author of the best book that combines excellence in research with readability, illuminating Russia’s history, culture and people, and published in English for the first time since 24th February 2022. Translations from other languages are eligible and actively sought.

Judges for this year’s prize were professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford Philip Bullock, prize-winning author, staff writer for The New Yorker, professor of writing at Bard College and activist Masha Gessen, and Golden Globe-winning Ukrainian film producer and director Alexander Rodnyansky.

The winner of the 2022 Pushkin House Book Prize and leading expert on foreign policy, professor Mary Elise Sarotte, was also on the panel, alongside Bosch Academy Richard von Weizsäcker fellow and political commentator Ekaterina Schulmann.

Schulmann, who was chair of the judges, said: “Overreach is an impressive achievement: a work of accessible history, with very vivid writing, depth and historical sweep, which helps explain the context of Russia’s current war.”

The titles on this year’s prize shortlist covered everything from the Russo-Ukrainian war to illicit gay relationships in pre-Soviet Russia and the cultural perils of making a Russian version of "Sesame Street". 

The judges also praised another shortlisted title, Jade McGlynn’s Russia’s War, for its "original, well argued and deeply researched analysis". In the book, McGlynn explores the attitudes behind the Russian majority backing for the invasion, drawing on media analysis and interviews with ordinary citizens, officials and foreign-policy elites in Russia and Ukraine.

Elena Sudakova, executive director of Pushkin House, commented: “With the Pushkin House Book Prize we aim to present to a broad public books that will stimulate urgently-needed reflection and discussion, supported by scholarly research and evidence contributing to open discourse. Overreach fits that role extremely well.”