Retribution
A US Marine's Fight for Justice, from the Russian Gulag to Ukraine's Front Lines
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 27, 2026
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- ¥2,400
Publisher Description
The gritty memoir of a former US Marine and Presidential Guard, who, after being unjustly held and abused in a Russian gulag for three years and freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange, seeks revenge against his former Russian captors by volunteering to fight in Ukraine.
In August 2019, Trevor Reed, a former US Marine and Presidential Guard, was arrested in Russia on false, trumped-up charges. For three years, he was imprisoned in the infamous Russian gulag, where the inhumane treatment threatened his health so severely his parents and the U.S. government feared for his life. After losing roughly fifty pounds from his already trim body, he was released in a 2022 prisoner swap that dominated headlines.
Most people would go home, try to move on with their lives, and forget the horrors they endured. But not Trevor Reed.
Reed trained relentlessly to regain his health and strength, aiming to volunteer in Ukraine to fight the Russians and seek revenge. Having faced Russian cruelty up close, he knew what the Ukrainians were experiencing, and he knew he could help them. Just six months after being released from prison, Reed smuggled himself into Ukraine. He fought in one of the hottest fronts of the war . . . until one dark night a comrade stepped on a land mine. Reed almost lost his leg and his life, barely making it home to Texas alive.
A harrowing, on-the-ground account of the war in Ukraine, Retribution is the story of one man’s dogged persistence and commitment to justice, regardless of the personal cost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reed debuts with an engrossing recap of his imprisonment in Russia and his subsequent Ukrainian military service. In 2019, while visiting his girlfriend in Moscow, Reed—who'd left the Marine Corps three years earlier—was detained after getting belligerently drunk at a party. Without evidence, he was charged with assaulting a police officer, and after the judge presiding over Reed's trial dug up a photo of the author with President Obama at Camp David, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. His parents pressured the Biden administration to conduct a prisoner swap, which led to Reed's release in 2022. Describing in visceral terms the starvation and physical abuse he endured while incarcerated, Reed sets the stage for his decision to seek revenge by fighting Russian forces in Ukraine. He enrolled as a paid volunteer in a Ukrainian commando unit, and nearly died in an explosion before retiring from combat to pursue a degree in international studies. Aided by coauthor DeFelice's unfussy prose, Reed provides an unvarnished glimpse into the brutality of the Russian prison system and the psychology of vengeance. It's a sobering account.
