To celebrate the last night of a business trip in Moscow, Vesselin Nedkov and a friend picked up two tickets to the hottest show in town: the ground-breaking Broadway-style musical, Nord Ost. Halfway through the show, his life was changed forever.

57 Hours is Nedkov’s harrowing account of being trapped between two immovable and unpredictable forces: inside the theatre, suicidal Chechen rebels, loaded with explosives, demanded an end to the bloody civil war that was ravaging Chechnya; outside, Russian special forces prepared to storm the theatre, refusing to negotiate with the rebels.

Through fifty-seven hours of fear and fatigue, surrounded by desperate, trigger-happy terrorists and parents pleading for the release of their children, Nedkov discovered courage and ingenuity he never knew he had. In the end, 127 innocent people lost their lives, most succumbing to gas used by the Russian forces to facilitate their dramatic rescue.

Taking us into the maelstrom of the civil war that still plagues Russia, 57 Hours reminds us that in today’s unpredictable world, we too can become victims of far-removed conflicts and that we too must have courage and determination to protect the values of our civilization.