Travels in Siberia

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

"An uproarious, sometimes dark yarn filled with dubious meals, broken-down vehicles, abandoned slave-labor camps and ubiquitous status of Lenin – On the Road meets The Gulag Archipelago…. Endlessly fascinating." –The New York Times Book Review

In this 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 region's fascinating, enduring appeal. In Travels in Siberia, Fazier reveals Siberia's role in history – its science, economics, and politics – with great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that we'll never think about it in the same way again.

With great empathy and epic sweep, Frazier tells the stories of Siberia's most famous exiles from the well-known – Dostoyevsky, 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.

Travels in Siberia is a captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he call "the amazingness" of Russia, and "a masterpiece of nonfiction writing—tragic, bizarre and funny" (San Francisco Chronicle)