Masha Gessen is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator and activist who has been an outspoken critic of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin and the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Masha Gessen’s “The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy” seeks to explain how Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan, became the Bombers. Early in Masha Gessen’s book “The Brothers,” in a chapter titled “Love”, Gessen tells a captivating origin story. A teenage girl walking home alone on a May evening senses someone walking behind her. Nervously, she turns to see a young man there, a skinny and unthreatening stranger, and they fall into step together, talking. “He had a way of projecting resolve and shyness at the same time,” Gessen writes, “a combination Zubeidat thought was lovely.” Soon after their chance meeting, the infatuated Anzor Tsarnaev brings the girl a bouquet of wildflowers. They believe that they are kindred spirits, and in the way of many young couples in love, that they are special, fated for a life that will be bigger, bolder, and brighter than those they see around them. On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 264 others. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and ultimately charged on thirty federal counts. Listen online to free English audiobook "The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy” on our website to experience Masha Gessen’s novel.
