The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of
Life in Siberia and the Russian Far
East by Sharon Hudgins
Offering A Window Of Observation Into This Land Of Harsh Winters
Award-winning author Sharon Hudgins takes readers on a personal
adventure through the Asian side of Russia-from the high-rise villages of
Vladivostok and Irkutsk to Lake Baikal and the Trans-Siberian Railroad
route. Join her as a guest confronted with exotic dishes at Christmas
parties, New Years banquets, Easter dinners, and Siberian festivals-and
discover what daily life is really like on Russias other side. Sharon
Hudgins has written a vivid and engrossing book about a part of the world
thats both geographically and ethnically complex. Shes done much to
make the unfamiliar familiar.--Larry McMurtry Rare is the person who can
step into the wonderland of Siberia and capture the culture and the spirit of
its people. Sharon Hudgins has done that and more. . . . This is a warm,
considered, and completely engaging work from start to finish. For those
seeking a window into the soul of Siberia, you need look no further.--
James A. Cramer, President & CEO, World Learning . . . an animated

examination of grim, grimy, and unpredictably gracious ordinary life in the
extrordinary place she calls Absurdistan.-Alfred Friendly, Jr., coauthor,
Ecocide in the USSR, and former Newsweek Moscow Bureau Chief
Personal Review: The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in
Siberia and the Russian Far East by Sharon Hudgins
The Other Side of Russia is part travel narrative, part social history, part
memoir, part food writing. All these parts come together to make a terrific
book.
Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom spent a year and a half in post-
Soviet Siberia teaching business management for the University of
Maryland's overseas program. As peripatetic ex-patriates, they were
familiar with unfamiliarity. But they were still not prepared for what Siberia
had to offer them.
Join Sharon and Tom as they picnic with the Russian Mafiya, try to teach
in an educational system that discourages questions and independent
thinking, and ponder why a herd of horses is tangled in downtown rush
hour traffic.
In "Absurdistan" it is just one perplexing thing after another. The electricity
and water in their poorly-constructed apartment building work only
intermittently. But in spite of such challenges, they make friends and
entertain regularly. Cultural differences mean that the same friends who
swoon over delicacies such as wafer-thin horse liver slices rolled with
layers of horse fat, are unable to enjoy a Hudgins Tex-Mex feast.
Hudgins's previous work as a food and travel writer are evident here, and I
wouldn't be surprised to learn that she writes fiction as well. The narrative
is effortless and the stories she tells are by turns engaging and frightening.
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