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Title details for Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier - Available

Travels in Siberia

by Ian Frazier
Ian Frazier
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the bestselling author of Great Plains
In Travels in Siberia, Ian Frazier trains his eye for unforgettable detail on Siberia, that vast expanse of Asiatic Russia. He explores many aspects of this storied, often grim region, which takes up one-seventh of the land on earth. He writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the forty-below midwinter afternoons, the bugs.
The book brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, fur seekers, ambassadors of the czar bound for Peking, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every kind—from Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the czarina for copying her dresses; to the noble Decembrist revolutionaries of the 1820s; to the young men and women of the People's Will movement whose fondest hope was to blow up the czar; to those who met still-ungraspable suffering and death in the Siberian camps during Soviet times.
More than just a historical travelogue, Travels in Siberia is also an account of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union and a personal reflection on the all-around amazingness of Russia, a country that still somehow manages to be funny. Siberian travel books have been popular since the thirteenth century, when monks sent by the pope went east to find the Great Khan and wrote about their journeys. Travels in Siberia will take its place as the twenty-first century's indispensable contribution to the genre.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 23, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427210548
      • File size: 588796 KB
      • Duration: 20:26:39

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 12, 2010
      Drawn to what he calls "the incomplete grandiosity of Russia, Frazier's extraordinary work combines personal travelogue with in-depth history and gives readers a firsthand account of a place most will never see: Siberia. After 16 years of research, five trips to Siberia and more to western Russia, Frazier (Lamentations of the Father) recounts his obsession with the inhospitable place that doesn't officially exist: "no political or territorial entity has Siberia in its name." From the Mongol hordes that galloped across the steppes to the Soviet labor camps that killed millions, he intersperses the vast region's history with his own visits. Determined to immerse himself in Russian—and particularly Siberian—culture, Frazier embarks on a drive eastward across the tundra in the summer of 2001, accompanied by two guides. Seeing such sites as Irkutsk, the onetime "Paris of Siberia," Frazier and his companions travel 9,000 miles from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific in five weeks and two days, arriving on September 11. Since he hadn't felt Siberia's renowned bone-chilling cold, Frazier returned for a month in March of 2005, this time starting in the Pacific port of Vladivostok and traveling east to west. Part long-gestating love letter, part historical record of a place shrouded in mystery, this is Frazier at his best.

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2011

      Frazier, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, himself narrates this fascinating travelog (originally excerpted in that magazine) that is chock-full of history, commentary, and his love for the grand, unrealized greatness of modern Russia. His observations derive from a cross-country trip he took one summer with two Russian guides and an only somewhat reliable van and are infused with historical context and everyday details. The audio's 16-hour length feels appropriate, given the time and space needed even to scratch the surface of the vastness of Asiatic Russia. A sprawling, enthusiastic glimpse of a land that is so much more than cold and ice. Recommended for fans of Frazier's national best seller Great Plains (1989) as well as for those interested in books on Russia, history, and travel. [The Farrar hc was "highly recommended" for "history buffs, armchair travelers, and lovers of a good essay," LJ 8/10.--Ed.]--J. Sara Paulk, Wythe-Grayson Regional Lib., Independence, VA

      Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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