SIBERIAN ODYSSEY
By
An engrossing true story of the escape of an English family from Siberia in 1919-1920 during the Russian revolution. Taking their cue from the worker unrest at the mine where her father was an engineer, the narrator's family decided to return to England. Travelling on foot and later on the Siberian railroad, there are stops when her father took on work, invasions by marauders, weeks in trains often stationary for days, and finally help. The feminine compulsion to explore minutiae serves well here. Based on diaries and letters, there is a tone of youth and hope which is still fresh these forty years later.