Journey from Vladivostok to Moscow

Seven stories by Daria Kleberg are strung together, like beads on a wire, on the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the route Vladivostok–Moscow.

As we travel along this route – from city to city, from east to west – we witness the gradual collapse of the world: first almost imperceptible, but gradually increasing, like an avalanche. We see how magical realism and the coarsest, earthbound realism combine along this path: they converge and diverge, like the points of a compass on tracks. We see breakthroughs of inferno – and breakthroughs towards the light, towards freedom, successful attempts to escape from a bad infinity. Here is both horror and laughter; absurdity, guignol, macabre – and right next to it, pure pity and tenderness.