Book Description
An enormous and mysterious land, Siberia remains an
exotic unknown that has haunted the imagination of Westerners
for centuries. Colin Thubron takes us into the heart of
Siberia on a journey of discovery from Mongolia to the Arctic
Circle, from Rasputin's village in the west through tundra,
taiga, splendid mountains, lakes and rivers to the derelict
Jewish community in Birobidzhan in the far eastern reaches of
the region. More than a travel book, In Siberia is a
moving and profound portrait of a region rich with history
(and the remains of an intriguing prehistorical past),
religions, and a profusion of fascinating peoples and
cultures.
Traveling alone, by train, boat, car, and on foot, Thubron
explores this vast territory, talking to anyone he can find
about the state of the country today and what it is like to
live there. He finds a land of spectacular natural beauty,
marked by the horrors of the Gulag and Soviet exploitation of
its abundant natural resources. Beneath the permafrost, all
too near the surface, lie bones and nuclear waste. And yet in
counterpoise to the horror is the extraordinary human
compassion he encounters: Wherever he goes, somebody takes
him in and feeds him, no matter how poor they are. Perhaps
the "core to Siberia" for which Thubron is
searching turns out to be an unshakeable desire to believe, a
quintessentially Russian hopefulness that is born of faith.
Thubron traces it from Dostoevsky through the wreckage of
communism to present day Siberia where it appears under other
names.
Written in a marvelously elegant prose, In Siberia
penetrates a mysterious and beautiful part of the world in a
way that no other book has been able to do.
