Many people associate Siberia, which Dostoevsky described as lying at the "eternal edge of the world," with some vague notion, despite not knowing much about it concretely. The author, Katharina Füllenbach, felt the same way before embarking on her journey, and she describes her related fantasies with a collection of stark black-and-white associations that fluctuated between eternal ice and snow, horrific prisoner camps, and hidden Soviet weapons depots.

In the autumn of 2018, she set out to verify these vague images and ideas, starting her journey in Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan and traveling across Siberia to Moscow. For two months, she traveled around ten thousand kilometers through the country on the Russian state railway, stopping in fourteen cities along the way. During her multi-day stays, she aimed not only to capture the cultural, ethnic, and historical peculiarities of each place but also to gain insight into the current living conditions of the local population.

Katharina Füllenbach has summarized her experiences and observations in an informative and engaging travel report. It is a worthwhile and complementary read for anyone interested in contemporary Russia, beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg, and who is considering traveling through the vast country beyond the Urals.