Michael
Idov

Novelist

Michael Idov was born in Latvia, moved to the US when he was a teenager, and became a journalist after reading film studies at the University of Michigan. Bitter Brew, his account of the failure of his own café venture, was one of 2005’s most read articles on slate.com, and since then Michael has written for (among others) New York Magazine and NBC.

His debut novel, Ground Up  was inspired by the author’s own coffeehouse hell and Publishers Weekly commented that it is "A sagely wry novel . . . Packed with insight and frequently hilarious asides, Idov’s debut mercilessly takes down ‘money is an illusion’ bohoism."

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Phenomenally funny and insightful. Idov has managed something fiendishly difficult: to use his personal experience in the glamorous vortex of Moscow high life to give a damning portrayal of a whole system. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People meets Orwell

Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing is True and Everything Is Possible
on Dressed Up For a Riot

Idov is fascinating and extremely funny and it’s a great pleasure to accompany him on his adventures in modern day Russia. But perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that he takes the occasion to explain what’s actually happening there with a depth and originality that has eluded even the best political commentators

Joe Weisberg, Creator / Executive Producer, The Americans
on Dressed Up For a Riot

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