57 Hours: A Survivor's Account of the Moscow Hostage Drama

"57 Hours" presents a valuable insight into something most us will never, thank heaven, have to endure - being taken hostage. Vesselin Nedkov (with Paul Wilson) has done a marvelous job of describing the basic events associated with the capture by Chechen fighters in 2002 of almost 800 Moscow theater-goers, actors, musicians, and others in the Russian musical production "Nord-Ost". Nedkov's story is told without any intense feeling of rancor against the Chechen hostage-takers or against the Russian forces who caused the deaths of so many of the very people they were trying to rescue. There is a lot of sadness in this book, but much hope, too, as well as the realization that among the majority of people who live lives of "quiet desperation" there is also a well of quiet heroism to draw upon. This is an engrossing story that is very well told. I certainly recommend this book.

Reading this book took me immediately back to Moscow 1992. I was also kidnapped, beaten and tortured for 11 horrifying days. I was also one of the lucky ones as was Vesselin Nekov. I am awestruck by anyone who can survive an horrific experience such as that written by this courageous author of "57 Hours". Although this book is well written, it saddens me to think there are human beings on this planet who were not dealt with an even hand of civility and caring. -Yvonne Bornstein, Author, Eleven Days Of Hell

I must admit that I am a sucker for these type of first hand accounts of true life dramatic events. I find that the excitement I have for learning about the particular event tends to make up for any short comings the book might have. So knowing I have this positive bias I have tried to be a bit more level headed with this review. The book is written by one of the hostages and is only the story from his perspective. He makes a few attempts to bring in bits and pieces of what the Russian police and military officials were doing, but this effort is very limited. So limited that is almost made me frustrated that he was not able to include more of this detail. The author also gives the reader a brief history of the Russian / Chechen war and what life is like in Chechen cities. The author produced a book that covers the overall event in a somewhat basic telling. Not to be too critical, but the fact that this was the authors first attempt at a book is apparent. It is not that it was bad, it just seemed like it was written like a long conversation you might have had with the author. I did enjoy his perspective of the event. He hit on a number of interesting side stories that you would have missed by just reading news footage. He did a good job in conveying his emotions and the overall event. I enjoyed the book, and beside my few criticisms here, I would recommend the book.

I rather enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I remember following the news of the hostage crisis as it was happening, and was intrigued enough to want to learn more, and this book does it for me.Nedkov writes a very gripping tale, and it is well written. Reading the book, you get the feel of the horrible conditions inside the House of Culture. You can almost smell the stink of fear. He also intersperses the blow by blow description of the hostage situation, with chapters about Chechnya and it's history to give a more rounded story. While he doesn't sympathize with the terrorists, he understands some of their motives.I highly recommend this book.