M. Gessen

Grandmother had a variety of boundary-pushing behaviors.

By this point, Lena had signed an agreement to speak only English during the visits, so that the supervisor could understand.

Obviously, Priscilla had good reason to fear that Lena would badmouth her to the kids.

Lena still spoke Russian to the children.

The judge had specified that Lena wasn't to give the children gifts, but you guessed it.

The supervisor texted Priscilla asking what to do, and Priscilla said let them keep the gifts, because who wants to take a gift away from a small child?

According to court papers, one time, when the supervisor wasn't looking, Lena slipped a very special gift into O's bag.

Yes.

In prison, Alan wrote a book.

It's called The Locked Up Lawyer.

Alan used a pseudonym, but Lena advertised the book to friends and family as having been written by him.

She also illustrated it.

Her name was on the Amazon page next to Alan's pen name.

The book is self-published.

It's currently number 3,960,562 on Amazon.

But it has eight five-star reviews, including one signed by Alan's ex-girlfriend, the one who says that Alan made her feel like a goddess.

During our phone conversations, Alan had told me that he was writing a book of short stories and a philosophy book, both intended for O. I asked to read them, of course, but he never sent anything.

But just a month after we finished talking, the locked-up lawyer was published.

I think this was the book intended for O. It consists of vignettes on the people Alan presumably met in prison.

But the most important story might be the one Alan tells on the back cover.