Siberian Light

Have you ever studied, visited or wondered about Russia, the Soviet Union, or what has risen from their ashes? If so, Siberian Light is for you. Robin White blends the other-worldly conditions of daily life in Siberia with murder, greed, loyalty and a hero who is searching for meaning in his life. Nowek, the hero, finds himself wanting to be heroic, yet doesn't know if the system has beaten the heroism out of him. A surprising blend of unlikely accomplices and intriguing sub-plots give the book great pace. This murder mystery respects its reader's intelligence, letting out enough rope to piece some things together while painting a painfully honest picture of the harshness of life on the other side of the world. By setting the story in Siberia, which quickly proves to be a land that tests one's limits, White's characters are believable in their wide range of good and evil, since the place itself can and does bring out the best and worst in every one of them.Regardless of this review's trite "Hollywood pitch" title, Siberian Light is a book worth reading for its well-developed characters, poetic moments, ironic truisms and amazing attention to detail (from the upside-down nature of things in Siberia to a deft use of Russian sayings and their meanings without being heavy-handed). Robin White lets us flex imaginative muscles through fabulous descriptions and accurate assessments of the attitude and character of post-Soviet society. Even though the book is a murder mystery, the more intriguing mystery turns out to be how the characters will fare in the end. Will justice prevail? Will the "good guy" win? And how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys in Siberia?!Buy the hard cover; this one deserves a permanent place on the shelf.

I read "Siberian Light" a year or two ago, and I am currently reading it again because, from time to time, I recall its poetic and gritty lines. This is an excellent read, masterfully done. White has a fine talent for charcterization. I hope that if the author hasn't written more about Siberia, he will--and soon.

"Siberian Light" is the sometimes eloquent, often savage and utterly riveting discovery of an unspeakable American secret in the heart of contemporary Siberian oil country. Brilliantly structured and fast-paced right to the finish, the book draws on Robin White's considerable personal experience of the Siberian landscape, Russian politics and the oil industry. Yet in the end, it is the chilling plausibility of using Siberia as a camp for unregenerate American criminals that turns the story inside out and raises troubling questions. Compared with the Gulag Archipelago, what might this possibility mean? Our access into the labyrinthine complexities of post-Soviet law enforcement (the most convincing portrayal since Martin Cruz Smith1s depiction of Soviet-era enforcement in Gorky Park) is through Gregori Nowek, whose dogged persistence in spite of layers of corruption and deception is as admirable as his laconic (very Russian) sense of humor and his genuine humanity.Our access into the AmerRus oil conglomerate, including the Elgen prison complex is abetted both by Nowek1s daughter rebellious sixteen-year-old daughter Galena (who is lured to Tunguska to become a sex prisoner) and by the fascinating Dr. Anna Vereskaya, the wildlife expert (whose courage and wit convey the dark secret via satellite to friends in the American research community just in time).With our access we see institutional corruption in AmerRus that makes ordinary Russian corruption look tame. The soulless ruthlessness with which the immune conglomerate goes about protecting its evidently profitable prison business seems as much a warning about what now exists as about what might be. If you can stomach this book to its end, it will try your soul. The Siberian tigers seem admirable in comparison with the humans involved in the crime. One particular prisoner suffers so much and works so much good by a simple gesture just before his death that the institutional mentality that consigned him to this place seems more criminal than he.The premise that Americans would offshore to Siberia its most hardened criminals is fraught with irony, given the Soviet-era use of the region to intern its criminal population. True enough, the prison population in the United States is reaching such proportions with such costs that many out-of-the-box solutions have been proposed. Asked about ideas I could suggest to alleviate the problem, I simply recommended one solution NOT to contemplate, and I gave the righteous "law and order advocate" inquirer a copy of Siberian Light.

I am one of the small number Americans who has had the opportunity to spend a few months in Siberia. I found the characters and the settings to give an accurate portrayal of this area of Russia today. The protagonists were believeable and fascinating. The story kept me spellbound to the end. You can really get a feeling for life in Siberia and a respect for the spirit of the people who live there and survive.

This is not just another Russian mystery novel. Robin White's character development is great and he develops a truly unique Russian environment for his story to play itself out. Great reading.