The Lost Pianos of Siberia

The Lost Pianos of Siberia PDF Author: Sophy Roberts
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802149308
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
This “melodious” mix of music, history, and travelogue “reveals a story inextricably linked to the drama of Russia itself . . . These pages sing like a symphony.” —The Wall Street Journal Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos—grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos traveled into this snowbound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia follows Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful—and peppered with pianos. “An elegant and nuanced journey through literature, through history, through music, murder and incarceration and revolution, through snow and ice and remoteness, to discover the human face of Siberia. I loved this book.” —Paul Theroux

The Lost Pianos of Siberia

The Lost Pianos of Siberia PDF Author: Sophy Roberts
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802149308
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 443

Get Book Here

Book Description
This “melodious” mix of music, history, and travelogue “reveals a story inextricably linked to the drama of Russia itself . . . These pages sing like a symphony.” —The Wall Street Journal Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos—grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos traveled into this snowbound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia follows Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful—and peppered with pianos. “An elegant and nuanced journey through literature, through history, through music, murder and incarceration and revolution, through snow and ice and remoteness, to discover the human face of Siberia. I loved this book.” —Paul Theroux

Soul Hunters

Soul Hunters PDF Author: Rane Willerslev
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520252179
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Basing his study on firsthand experience with Yukaghir hunters, Rane Willerslev focuses on the practical implications of living in a 'hall of mirrors' world, one inhabited by humans, animals and spirits, all of whom are understood to be endless mimetic doubles of one another.

Great Soul of Siberia

Great Soul of Siberia PDF Author: Sooyong Park
Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd
ISBN: 1771641134
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In The Great Soul of Siberia, renowned tiger researcher Sooyong Park tracks three generations of Siberian tigers living in remote southeastern Russia. Reminiscent of the way Timothy Treadwell (the so-called Grizzly Man) immersed himself in the lives of bears, Park sets up underground bunkers to observe the tigers, living thrillingly close to these beautiful but dangerous apex predators. At the same time, he draws from twenty years of experience and research to focus on the Siberian tigers' losing battle against poaching and diminishing habitat. Over the two years of his harrowing stakeout, Park's poignant and poetic observations of the tigers draw a fiercely compassionate portrait of these elusive, endangered creatures.

The Reindeer People

The Reindeer People PDF Author: Piers Vitebsky
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618773572
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
Cambridge anthropologist Piers Vitebsky, the first westerner to live with the Eveny of Siberia since the Russian revolution, brings readers an extraordinary case of survival in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. of photos.

Siberian Village

Siberian Village PDF Author: Bella Bychkova Jordan
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9781452904740
Category : Dzharkhan (Russia)
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description


Siberian Light

Siberian Light PDF Author: Robin White
Publisher: Island Books
ISBN: 0440224608
Category : Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
Against the vivid backdrop of a country replacing corrupt communism with an equally corrupt capitalism, the geologist-turned-mayor of Markovo becomes obsessed with a grisly murder. Ordered to investigate, Mayor Gregori Nowek, no detective, soon finds himself in a labyrinth of deception that nevertheless begins to yield clues that point first toward a scientist studying the nearly extinct Siberian tiger, the beautiful Dr. Anna Vereskaya and ultimately towards an American-financed oil exploration venture.

The Tiger

The Tiger PDF Author: John Vaillant
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307375277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
It's December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. To their horrified astonishment it emerges that the attacks are not random: the tiger is engaged in a vendetta. Injured and starving, it must be found before it strikes again, and the story becomes a battle for survival between the two main characters: Yuri Trush, the lead tracker, and the tiger itself. As John Vaillant vividly recreates the extraordinary events of that winter, he also gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spectacularly beautiful region where plants and animals exist that are found nowhere else on earth, and where the once great Siberian Tiger - the largest of its species, which can weigh over 600 lbs at more than 10 feet long - ranges daily over vast territories of forest and mountain, its numbers diminished to a fraction of what they once were. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers - even sharing their kills with them - in a natural balance. We witness the first arrival of settlers, soldiers and hunters in the tiger's territory in the 19th century and 20th century, many fleeing Stalinism. And we come to know the Russians of today - such as the poacher Vladimir Markov - who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching for the corrupt, high-paying Chinese markets. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters and how early Homo sapiens may have once fit seamlessly into the tiger's ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator, and the grave threat it faces as logging and poaching reduce its habitat and numbers - and force it to turn at bay. Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger is a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest.

Siberian Odyssey

Siberian Odyssey PDF Author: Frederick Kempe
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
From the Berlin Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal--author of Divorcing the Dictator--comes a dramatic account of an expedition to an almost mythical place, the land of Russia's grandest dreams and cruelest nightmares. In a place where contradictions arise at ever turn, Kempe found not only an adventure but an unparalleled window into the Russian soul. 8 pages of photographs.

Siberia Bound

Siberia Bound PDF Author: Alexander Blakely
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Recounts the adventures of an American entrepreneur in Siberia, where he and Russian partner built a multi-million dollar company, and offers insightsnto the life in Novosibirsk.

On Being a Bear

On Being a Bear PDF Author: Rémy Marion
Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd
ISBN: 1771646993
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
This up-close, captivating look at an iconic animal traces our complex relationship to bears throughout history—and what they can tell us about ourselves. On Being a Bear draws on history, legends, scientific studies, and the author’s thirty years of observing bears around the world to offer a richly detailed biography of these iconic animals, including the many ways bears have figured in our lives and imaginations. As author Rémy Marion tells us, some cultures view bears as our wild cousins—as humans cloaked in fur—while others cast bears as cuddly characters in cartoons or seek to eradicate their grizzled forms from civilization. Scientists have made new discoveries into bears’ varied diets, their powerful sense of smell, and a mother bear’s stubborn patience with her cubs. Bears play a vital role in our ecosystems, and new studies into bear hibernation could lead to medical breakthroughs for humans. Offering these and more astonishing insights, On Being a Bear brings readers face-to-face with these long admired, feared, and misunderstood animals, and sets the record straight through a combination of thrilling science and expert storytelling.