The author of “Chasing the Sea” has a new Central Asia book out, called “God Lives in St. Petersburg” (Muscovites might disagree).
Katherine Shonk’s review in The Moscow Times makes Tom Bissell’s new collection sound worth reading for anyone who has been to Central Asia:
Any privileged visitor to a struggling region can be excused for wanting to believe that brutality comes from outside rather than from within. To think otherwise would be to accept that we are capable of propelling ourselves and others toward disaster. In “God Lives in St. Petersburg,” Americans do just that, setting up elaborate obstacle courses on punishing terrain. Their failure to pass these tests says as much about their unrealistic expectations and self-delusions as it does about the dangers and temptations that surround them.
“Chasing the Sea” had its fans and critics, and this collection sounds provocative as well.
