IN PUTIN'S FOOTSTEPS Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones

Kathleen Gati is a gifted narrator whose Russian enunciations flow through this fine work. This sprawling audiobook takes the listener across Russia's 11 time zones, through its Eurasian cities and its vast landscapes. Consistently insightful about Putin's autocracy, authors Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of Nikita, and Jeffrey Tayler, a Moscow-based journalist, have created a model of travel literature. Gati delivers a work packed with anecdotes of Czarist and Byzantine history, as well as literary allusions, and ferret out the opinions of Russian journalists, artists, and politicians. Quotes from Pushkin, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and lesser literary figures help guide the listener along. There are startling political insights as well: Monuments of Lenin from modest to gargantuan dot the country, but the restoration of Stalin's reputation in Putin's Russia is a sad surprise. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2019]