A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the bestselling author of Great Plains
In his astonishing new work, Ian Frazier, one of our greatest and most entertaining storytellers, trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia, the storied expanse of Asiatic Russia whose grim renown is but one explanation among hundreds for the regions fascinating, enduring appeal. In Travels in Siberia, Frazier reveals Siberias role in historyits science, economics, and politicswith great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that well never think about it in the same way again.
With great empathy and epic sweep, Frazier tells the stories of Siberias most famous exiles, from the well-knownDostoyevsky, Lenin (twice), Stalin (numerous times)to the lesser known (like Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the empress for copying her dresses) to those who experienced unimaginable suffering in Siberian camps under the Soviet regime, forever immortalized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago.
Travels in Siberia is also a unique chronicle of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, a personal account of adventures among Russian friends and acquaintances, and, above all, a unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the amazingness of Russiaa country that, for all its tragic history, somehow still manages to be funny. Travels in Siberia will undoubtedly take its place as one of the twenty-first centurys indispensable contributions to the travel-writing genre.
