Lost in the Taiga/One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but puzzling read
Review: This story about a journalist who meets with a family that has lived for 50 years all alone in a tiny primitive shack in the Siberian wilderness is fascinating. It appeals to our human fascination with "lost people" or people who have shut themselves away from the world. The descriptions of the family and their lives is an astonishing read. The reader comes off still very puzzled, however, at why they did that. Understandably, even the author did not find the true answer, but after our fascination with the situation is over, we have more questions than are answered. When three of the five family members suddenly die within a month of each other there is little explanation and it takes up only a page of story. I recommend this book, but I should warn that after the story is over, you will have many unanswered questions. The book does not give those of us untutored in Russian history sufficient explanation of the facts of people like this family.