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White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia
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About White Fever: A Journey To The Frozen Heart Of Siberia
Product Description No one in their right mind travels across Siberia in the middle of winter in a modified Russian jeep, with only a CD player (which breaks on the first day) for company. But Jacek Hugo–Bader is no ordinary traveler. As a fiftieth birthday present to himself, Jacek Hugo–Bader sets out to drive from Moscow to Vladivostok, traversing a continent that is two and a half times bigger than America, awash with bandits, and not always fully equipped with roads. But if his mission sounds deranged it is in keeping with the land he is visiting. For Siberia is slowly dying — or, more accurately, killing itself. This is a traumatized post–Communist landscape peopled by the homeless and the hopeless: alcoholism is endemic, as are suicides, murders, and deaths from AIDS. As he gets to know these communities and speaks to the people, Hugo–Bader discovers a great deal of tragedy, but also dark humor to be shared amongst the reindeer shepherds, the former hippies, the modern–day rappers, the homeless and the sick, the shamans, and the followers of ‘one of the six Russian Christs,’ just one of the many arcane religions that flourish in this isolated, impossible region. From Publishers Weekly "Now watch out. In this chapter the words ‚--òdie,' ‚--òkill' and ‚--òdeath' appear more than fifty times‚--¶If that doesn't suit you, don't read on," writes Polish journalist Hugo-Bader in a chapter of his book, covering the 21 suicides of a town in eastern Siberia. The author spent several months traveling through the region, exploring the bleak life there‚--î‚--î and the people who bravely attempt it. But not always successfully, attempt it. It makes for grim, but, at times, intriguing reading, especially chapters on Arzamas, whose people suffer the fallout from the USSR's nuclear bomb tests nearby, and Gorod, "the only place in Russia where I meet happy people." The tpwm os home to one of the three men in Russia who claim to be Christ.. Tp these vivid profiles and the dreary environment, the bleak lives of its inhabitants, the author brings a taut, straightforward style and black humor. Spme references will stump readers not familiar with Russian culture, but Hugo-Bader is an amiable and observant guide on a Painful and illuminating journey. Photos, map. From Booklist Siberian travelogues typically involve the trans-Siberian railroad, but not Hugo-Bader’s. A Polish journalist, he drove from Moscow to Vladivostok in winter. Inviting cold-weather misadventure––his car caught fire, among other mishaps––Hugo-Bader embarked on the journey in 2007, accomplished it in several months, and racked up interpersonal encounters in Siberia’s contemporary life. For the most part, it seemed to be harsh, inebriated, and short. Staying with a group of indigenous herders, Hugo-Bader inventoried the deaths of most of its members through alcoholism, suicide, or accident, a grim tableau somewhat elucidated by his interviews with a shaman and a hypnotist who succored people on the slide. If such pathologies afflicted young non-Russian Siberians, the Russians themselves didn’t live much past their fifties, as Hugo-Bader observed in stories from hitchhikers and in a visit to the Soviet Union’s radioactive nuclear test site. He found a happy community of Russians, however, followers of Sergei Torop, who had revealed his divinity as Jesus Christ. With an open ear and a wry eye, Hugo-Bader delivers a dismaying but vivid chronicle of post-Communist Siberia. --Gilbert Taylor Review Praise for White Fever "Hugo–Bader is often clever. . .[and] this book is really a vehicle to introduce readers to a kaleidoscope of eccentric and colorful Russian characters."— Library Journal "With an open ear and a wry eye, Hugo–Bader delivers a dismaying but vivid chronicle of post–Communist Siberia."— Booklist About the Author Born in 1957, Jacek Hugo–Bader is a Polish journalist for the leading daily paper, Gazeta Wyborcza. He is a former special–needs teacher,
