From Russia with Love

Richard Wirick and his wife adopted a Siberian daughter. As with many adoptive parents, the Wiricks felt it was important for her to know the culture of her native country. Richard had lived in Siberia almost two years and had some experience with the strange, mournful and magical nature of this mostly frozen land. With poetic skill, Wirick distilled his Siberian experiences into One Hundred Siberian Postcards, a book of vignettes that features shamans, bits of Siberian myth and history, regional customs, and a beguiling sense of magical realism. In "No. 4: Loved a Woman Who Wasn't Clean," Wirick writes of a Tatar woman who listens to rap music broadcast from a Moscow radio station, drinks grain alcohol and Armenian cognac, and leaves the aroma of kerosene and pine-scented gravel in her wake. Wirick reads from and discusses One Hundred Siberian Postcards at 7 p.m. at Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue; 314-367-6731 or www.left-bank.com). Admission is free and books will be available for purchase.
Tue., April 1, 2008