Her new book, The Good Russian is an insight into the hearts and minds of ordinary people in Putin’s Russia. It is coming out on 6 November 2025 (The Bridge Street Press / Little, Brown).Click here to pre-order The Good Russian

“An important and necessary book, taking us inside the complexities of the Russian psyche at a tumultuous time. The writer is uniquely placed to be our translator and interlocutor, as she grapples with her own torment, and the result is a work of honesty and humanity.”
Mishal Husain“A fine and brave book. Jana Bakunina describes how Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine have found themselves at odds with friends and family. She writes movingly about her estrangement from her once-liberal father who supports the Kremlin's murderous war.”
Luke Harding, author of Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival“This is a unique and necessary book. The Good Russian takes us inside wartime Russia, to a city that Jana Bakunina knows intimately, and then on a journey through the Russian diaspora of exiles from Putin. She brings us face to face with ordinary Russians, and also tells her own compelling family story. Best of all, she writes very well.”
Simon Kuper, FT journalist, author of Chums“The Good Russian offers an unflinchingly honest look at the choices facing Russians today amid autocracy and war. In crisp and compelling prose, Bakunina explores what Putin has done not only to her country, but also her family, taking the reader on an illuminating journey to Yekaterinburg, the city of her childhood. Perceptive, humane, and insightful.”
Howard Amos, author of Russia Starts Here

“From the start, I have hungered to understand what ordinary Russians think of their ‘special military operation.’ Jana Bakunina has written a cogent, conversational, and compelling book that feeds that appetite.” Lionel Shriver“Unique and fascinating close-up insights into Russian thinking, The Good Russian looks to the future with a mix of foreboding and hope.”
Steve Crawshaw, author of Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice

“A powerful and deeply personal exploration of what it means to be Russian today – from a writer seeking to understand her own country after its slide into authoritarianism and a devastating war. Engagingly written and thought provoking, this book takes the reader beyond Moscow and the well known names to probe how Russians of all kinds think in the author’s own hometown, a city to which she can no longer return.”
Sarah Rainsford, author of Goodbye to Russia

Stories by a Russian Londoner is a collection of short stories that explores how political events mould our identities, challenge our beliefs and redefine our relationships, drawing from the author’s first-hand experience as a Russian.In this collection, a Londoner tries to mend a broken relationship with her Russian father in The Repair Job, in Alya, a talented young woman perishes in the gilded cage of her marriage, in Tamara Ivanovna Talks to Herself, a lonely widow is nagged by guilt. The final story, Up Against the Wall, provides a bittersweet consolation of acceptance, resilience and hope.Stories by a Russian Londoner were longlisted for the 2021 and 2022 Fish Short Story Prize, shortlisted for the 2022 Bridport Prize, and in 2022, Jana became a finalist of the London Independent Short Story Prize. In 2023, her story, “Ruby”, came second in the Olga Sinclair Prize competition.Order a paperback or buy a Kindle e-book

In Bird's Milk, Jana Bakunina tells the story of her childhood in the Soviet Union from the early days of perestroika to the collapse of the USSR, offering a unique insight into the lives of ordinary Russians. Bird's Milk reveals a period of turbulent political and economic changes but also a heart-warming world of blini and pelmeni, weekends spent at the family dacha and summer camps on the Black Sea.Bird's Milk is a tale of growing up, struggling to belong and make sense of what it means to love one’s country, whilst being something of an outsider both at home and abroad.“Bird's Milk is a wonderful evocation of an ordinary Russian childhood in a town in the middle of the country – and then the personal journey that turned a Russian into a westerner. Jana Bakunina understands both sides of what has been called the ‘new Cold War.’ This is a memoir that helps illuminate today’s world.” Simon Kuper, FT columnist and authorBuy Kindle e-book on Amazon