The Secret History of Khava Gaisanova and the North Caucasus

by Rob Hornstra & Arnold van Bruggen

Amsterdam: The Sochi Project, 2013. Thick paperback. Signed by Hornstra.

Publisher's blurb:

Khava Gaisanova lives in Chermen, a village in the heart of the North Caucasus on the other side of the mountains from Sochi, Russia. In 2007 her husband Mukhazhir disappeared, like so many men in the North Caucasus disappear without a trace – kidnapped, arrested or simply executed and buried in anonymous graves. So many elements of the region seemed to come together in Khava’s life story that we decided to use it as the basis for our project. In The Secret History of Khava Gaisanova, a grim picture unfolds of the region hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.