Colin Thubron must be one of the finest writers of our time. I came across Among the Russians (formerly titled "Where Nights Are Longest") on the excellent website of Dr. George Grant, a Presbyterian pastor in Franklin, TN, who has this extraordinary book listed among his 25 top "modern non-fiction titles." If you've ever traveled in Russia or Ukraine (or plan to), you will be blown away by this fascinating story of Thubron's solo travels throughout Western Russia and Ukraine in the early 80's. He is stunningly perceptive while penetrating deeply into the soul of ordinary people, and his descriptions of them will hit home with anyone who's spent time in this mysterious part of the world:
"The whole country is like a requiem. In its consuming maternity, its individual children drown; and all other nations become petty or irrelevant - they are far away. From her own people Russia elicits a helpless worship of belonging. She contains them with the elemental despotism of an earth mother, and they feel for her the supplicant's tormented tenderness."
I love reading travel books in the Summer, and this is easily the finest in the travel genre I've ever read. If your adoption adventure takes you to Siberia, check out Thubron's In Siberia, which also gets rave reviews on Amazon.
1 comment:
Sounds wonderful! I will try to get it.... I usually avoid "Russia" books, as they make me long for the place too fiercely...but perhaps that will boost me into actually getting my mission idea going. (Catholics doing a mission trip to Russia? New idea! But why not?)
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