Ocean State Libraries

"The human story has always been one of perseverance-often against remarkable odds. The most astonishing survival tale of all might be that of 16th-century Dutch explorer William Barents and his crew of sixteen, who ventured farther north than any Europeans before and, on their third polar exploration, lost their ship off the frozen coast of Nova Zembla to unforgiving ice. The men would spend the next year fighting off ravenous polar bears, gnawing...

"The acclaimed author of Sovietistan travels along the seemingly endless Russian border and reveals the deep and pervasive influence it has had across half the globe."--Book jacket. Imperial, communist or autocratic, Russia has always been a towering and intimidating neighbor. What would it be like to traverse the entirety of the Russian periphery to examine its effects on those closest to her? Fatland has created a book about Russia-- without ever...