he strange and provocative epic novel takes the reader back to the beginning of the “ravaged century” barely behind us — Siberia in 1919. A straggling unit of Czech soldiers, an oddball religious sect, a widow, a shaman, and a mysterious escapee from a prison camp converge in a barren, distant outpost as Russia’s civil war rages on the horizon.
Their conflicting desires gradually become a struggle for a single soul pulled between the forces of fascism, communism, faith, reason, and anarchy. The story asks if any cause — even love — is tainted by a life sacrificed in its name.
