“I Love Russia” is a provocative title for a book published in 2023. After President Vladimir Putin stunned the world by invading Ukraine in February 2022, professing a love for Russia has been risky in the West, where the author, the Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko, has been forced into exile, and where even the prospect of Russian writers appearing on a literary panel causes controversy. But Kostyuchenko’s deep affection for Russia’s people is evident in her empathetic and nuanced reporting.

There is already a surfeit of books about Putin’s war and how it has affected Russia’s place in global politics, but few have tried to examine the life of ordinary people in the world’s biggest country (by physical size) the way this one does. A kaleidoscopic collection of Kostyuchenko’s journalism since 2008 for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta — whose editor in chief won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 — “I Love Russia” traces the recent evolution of Russian society, highlighting its persistent inequality and injustice, and suggesting why so many Russians stay silent as their leader prosecutes a ruinous war.