The Book
The independent traveller is a funny kind of person, one obsessed with a thousand fixations and fears, and yet irresistibly attracted by the unknown and diversity. An insatiable traveller, prepared for anything, Paolo knows this well, but ... «with all the places on earth, why Siberia?», he asks himself as soon as he steps inside the famous cars of the Trans-Siberian Railway, departing for his next adventure. Everything seems to promise that this time, the experience will not be one of the best: the train is uncomfortable, the landscape boring, the food unimaginable, and instead ... unexpected encounters, unusual places, and pleasant surprises gradually arouse our protagonist’s curiosity.
Ironic and original, Cagnan describes a genuinely unusual journey made up of boundless expanses of Siberian steppes, and surreal little towns bordering Mongolia. What gets him most of all, though, are the people who inhabit these lands, “strange” beings suspended in time and history who have endured a harsh past, and are impatient to grab the future, or else lazy and awkward survivors of the Soviet era who no longer possess a point of reference. A light and amusing look, sharp and never superficial, into one of the most fascinating and surreal places a person can visit.

The Author
Paolo Cagnan (1967) is chief editor of the newspaper «Trentino», and has collaborated in several programmes for the Italian National Television Rai. In 1997, he won the Storie di vita all’opposizione literary prize with his Il comandante Gonzalo va alla guerra. His publications include: Delitti e misteri, Trovate il pilota Wisner, Similaun e Juanita, and Trilogia in giallo.