Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia [Hardcover]

[An] epic journey by rail.In this picaresque story of adventure, David Greene reaches beyond Putins Kremlin across Siberia to show us Russian life in the Rawthe gritty stoicism, surprising warmth and generosity, black humor, and resilience of the narod, the average people. A storyteller with a human touch, Greene finds Russians tested by tragedy and war as he joins them in their cramped apartments, jammed trains, and gulping beer and pickled horse sausage in their steam baths, facing an uncertain future with an unexpected streak of inner wildness. His Russians are stolidly patriotic and, even now, drawn mostly to strong leaders, resigned to tough justice and preferring stability and harsh rule to the chaotic uncertainties of democracy, their personal lives full of poetry, pain, and laughter.Greene is a great storyteller, and what a story he has to tell. A fascinating and thought-provoking journey deep into Russias physical vastness and soul. Greenes landscape is inhabited by a cast of characters that light up both and would have made Anton Chekhov proud. A first-rate tale that puts you aboard the Trans-Siberian Railroad on the journey of a lifetime.Beautifully written& The sharply observed vignettes, combined with the moving, elegiac quality of the prose make it a hard book to put down. David Greenes travels provide insights and context for some of the more dramatic recent events in Russia that will appeal to both the casual traveler and the seasoned observer.Complex& thought-provoking.Describe[s] the Russia of the vast interior&. An impressionistic book, a book about people along the way.A mesmerizing, confounding, comforting and thought-provoking book.Travels with NPR host David Greene along the Trans-Siberian Railroadcapture an overlooked, idiosyncratic Russia in the age of Putin.