John Murray pre-empts ‘exceptional’ memoir from daughter of murdered Chechen human rights activist 

John Murray has pre-empted the “exceptional” memoir of Lana Estemirova, who was 15 when her mother – human rights activist and writer Natalia Estemirova – was abducted from outside their apartment building in Grozny, Chechnya.

On the night that Lana Estemirova was in Oslo as part of a delegation receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of human rights’ group Memorial, Jocasta Hamilton, executive publisher of John Murray, pre-empted her memoir, Please Live!, from Patrick Walsh at PEW, for a “strong” five-figures for UK and Commonwealth rights. Italian rights have been pre-empted by Cristina Gerosa at Iperborea.

After being abducted, Natalia Estemirova was murdered for her work as a human rights’ investigator and Memorial activist, exposing the abuse – kidnappings, bombings, torture, murders – that was inflicted by the Russian occupiers and their collaborators on the Chechen population, both during and after the Chechen wars of the 1990s.

Please Live! is Lana Estemirova’s account of growing up as the only child of a single, extraordinarily brave and politically committed mother, in a time of conflict. The publisher added: “It is about the incredible bond of a mother and daughter and the pressures placed on that relationship by duty and war. It is about the brutal reality and unpredictability of life under occupation, the challenges of experiencing adolescence while separated from your mother and your country, the conflicting desires of a mother’s commitment to fighting for justice, to nurture her daughter and to keep her safe. It is a story about the ways in which the personal and the political overlap but, most of all, it is a story about love.”

Lana Estemirova said: “For me, writing Please Live! is the only way to achieve closure, redemption, and some form of enlightened revenge. While Chechnya and Russia remain in the grip of tyrants, there can be no justice. What happened in Chechnya is a lesson for the world. What Russia did there, they plan to do in Ukraine and in other countries of the region. Knowing that my mother’s murderers walk free also fuels my work, inspiring me to write the best and most accessible book on Chechnya.”

Lana Estemirova is Chechen, 29 years old and works for the  Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ), a London-based charity which fights against attacks  on the media. Formerly a freelance journalist for the Guardian and the Moscow Times, she studied international relations at the London School of Economics.

Hamilton said: “Passionate and devastating, this is an extraordinary memoir, about an extraordinary relationship forged in extreme circumstances. It brings the turbulent history of Chechnya into vivid focus, revealing the way in which the fabric of the country was altered under a dictatorship and life changed in every conceivable way.

“But what makes Please, Live! distinctive is that it is so personal. Written by an incredible woman in memory of another exceptional woman, this will be an unforgettable book, alive with purpose, commitment and love for all those that read Free by Lean Ypi (Allen Lane).”