Through Siberia by Accident: A Small Slice of Autobiography

by Dervla Murphy

Book Overview

Through Siberia by Accident is a book about a journey that didn't happen - and what happened instead. Dervla Murphy never had any intention of spending three months in the vast territories of Siberia.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0719566649
• ISBN13: 9780719566646
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: John Murray Publishers
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

I'd like to give it 5 stars but ...

the politics got in the way a bit too much for that. Her reply to being labeled "Anti-American" is to state "I have American friends." No doubt she does, but I'm fairly certain only ones who agree (almost completely) with her political views. I kept waiting for the promised "startling relevation" that never came. She has always been vague about her daughter's background, but, if that was it, I missed it. All in all, the book was otherwise up to her high writing standards. She promises a sequel at the end of this one. I'm looking forward to it.

AN HONEST ACCOUNT BY AN INTREPID TRAVELER

I am a newcomer to Dervla Murphy's no doubt legion fan club. THROUGH SIBERIA BY ACCIDENT is the first of her books that I've read-but that one book has convinced me that I now want read all of her other nineteen travel accounts from places as "off the beaten path" as Laos and Ethiopia, Madagascar and Tibet. Traveling in parts of the world seldom visited by standard tourists, Ms. Murphy blazes her own trails through geographic, bureaucratic, linguistic, cultural, and sometimes personal obstacles. She prefers to travel alone-on foot, by bicycle, by mule, by boat, and on public transportation-meeting local people and avoiding tourist traps along the way. And her pithy observations about the people and places she encounters provide a no-nonsense, realistic glimpse of a wider world that many readers will never see in person. THROUGH SIBERIA BY ACCIDENT is the author's aptly titled account of her first trip to the Asian side of Russia-Siberia and the Russian Far East-in 2002. I was particularly interested in reading her story, having lived in that part of Russia myself during the early period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Murphy covered some of the same territory that I did in southern Siberia, especially around Lake Baikal, but her travels also took her farther north by boat on the Lena River and by bus in a snowstorm from Yakutsk several hundred miles to the nearest train line. The author had originally set out to ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to the point where it connects with its more northern parallel line, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), which traverses the Russian Far East to the Pacific Coast. Then she planned to bicycle through the wilds of the Ussuri region north of Vladivostok, the largest city in eastern Russia. But two personal accidents-one on the train and another near Lake Baikal-left her unable to complete her journey to Russia's east coast. But injuries that would have sent other travelers home were just another challenge to the 71-year-old Murphy, who revised her itinerary for another "go with the flow" adventure that is apparently characteristic of her attitude toward life itself. I won't spoil the story for you by revealing what she did and how she did it-but I will disclose that this intrepid Irishwoman is just the sort of person with whom I'd be happy to share a crowded compartment on a Russian train. If you're curious about the realities of life and travel in remote areas of Siberia, this book is for you. And if you're planning a trip to the Asian side of Russia, THROUGH SIBERIA BY ACCIDENT will prepare you for the unexpected, so you'll be less surprised when you arrive there yourself. Highly recommended! ---Sharon Hudgins, author of THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA: A SLICE OF LIFE IN SIBERIA AND THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

A Slam Bam Trip Through Siberia

Dervla Murphy has spent her adulthood traveling the Third World the hard way--on foot or bicycle--and writing books about her experiences. Over time, her narratives have grown increasingly political: anti-globalization, pretty much uniformly anti-American and clearly not fond of modern technologies. (Twice, she proudly declares that she owns neither a television nor a washing machine to the astonishment of Siberian acquaintances.) This is not meant to be a criticism, but readers may find that her strongly-held and frankly stated opinions obstruct their enjoyment of the good stuff: her encounters with the territory and local folk; her gutsy traveler's stamina in the face of wretched lodgings, bad food and weather, and the occasional hostile, or reckless, citizen. In 'Siberia', Dervla intends to bicycle from Vladivostok to remotest Ussuriland but an injury on the train from Moscow forces a change in plan. Instead of walking or cycling, she takes the slow Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) train to Lake Baikal, a river boat up the Lena to Yakutsk and a 30-hour bus trip, with multiple breakdowns in a snowstorm, from Yakutsk to Tynda. Hobbling along, she meets a colorful palette of Siberians, inspects their family photo albums, sleeps in their generally humble homes, shares their food (lots of it) and delves into the sort of local history that's rarely written into the official record. The reader learns how cities in Siberia are heated and why Lake Baikal is such a special ecological jewel. Her history is occasionally suspect. Impressed by the bus driver's ability to repair its engine with spit and baling wire, she writes "Perhaps Russians have a special flair for this sort of thing; they did, after all, win the space race." (If you're a Dervla Murphy fan this book is a must, if only because she provides a listing of all her injuries and mishaps in 40 years of travels, along with a startling revelation.) Dervla Murphy is the original `warts and all' travel writer. You can count on her to be unfailingly direct and honest. I have read nearly all of her published work and keep coming back for more. She's had an unusual life and we have been privileged to share parts of it with her.