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River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny
One of today's most intrepid writers chronicles a deadly trek through the legendary region that gave birth to the gulag and gave Siberia its outsize reputation for perilous isolation.
In a custom-built boat, Jeffrey Tayler travels some 2,400 miles down the Lena River from near Lake Baikal to high above the Arctic Circle, recreating a journey first made by Cossack forces more than three hundred years ago. He is searching for primeval beauty and a respite from the corruption, violence, and self-destructive urges that typify modern Russian culture, but instead he finds the roots of that culture―in Cossack villages unchanged for centuries, in Soviet outposts full of listless drunks, in stark ruins of the gulag, and in grand forests hundreds of miles from the nearest hamlet.
That’s how far Tayler is from help when he realizes that his guide, Vadim, a burly Soviet army veteran embittered by his experiences in Afghanistan, detests all humanity, including Tayler. Yet he needs Vadim’s superb skills if he is to survive a voyage that quickly turns hellish. They must navigate roiling whitewater in howling storms, but they eschew life jackets because, as Vadim explains, the frigid water would kill them before they could swim to shore. Though Tayler has trekked by camel through the Sahara and canoed down the Congo during the revolt against Mobutu, he has never felt so threatened as he does now.
In a custom-built boat, Jeffrey Tayler travels some 2,400 miles down the Lena River from near Lake Baikal to high above the Arctic Circle, recreating a journey first made by Cossack forces more than three hundred years ago. He is searching for primeval beauty and a respite from the corruption, violence, and self-destructive urges that typify modern Russian culture, but instead he finds the roots of that culture―in Cossack villages unchanged for centuries, in Soviet outposts full of listless drunks, in stark ruins of the gulag, and in grand forests hundreds of miles from the nearest hamlet.
That’s how far Tayler is from help when he realizes that his guide, Vadim, a burly Soviet army veteran embittered by his experiences in Afghanistan, detests all humanity, including Tayler. Yet he needs Vadim’s superb skills if he is to survive a voyage that quickly turns hellish. They must navigate roiling whitewater in howling storms, but they eschew life jackets because, as Vadim explains, the frigid water would kill them before they could swim to shore. Though Tayler has trekked by camel through the Sahara and canoed down the Congo during the revolt against Mobutu, he has never felt so threatened as he does now.
230 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
12 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey Tayler
18 books37 followersJeffrey Tayler is a U.S.-born author and journalist. He is the Russia correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and a contributor to several other magazines as well as to NPR's All Things Considered. He has written several non-fiction books about different regions of the world which include Facing the Congo, Siberian Dawn, Glory in a Camel's Eye, and Angry Wind, the latter being a portrait of a journey through the Muslim portion of black Africa. His most recent book, River of No Reprieve, is about a challenging raft trip down Russia's Lena River.
Tayler is an accomplished linguist; in addition to his native English, he is fluent in Russian, Arabic, French, and modern Greek, and has a functioning knowledge of Spanish and Turkish.
Tayler is an accomplished linguist; in addition to his native English, he is fluent in Russian, Arabic, French, and modern Greek, and has a functioning knowledge of Spanish and Turkish.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 26, 2017
A journey that is harrowing, funny, sinister, exasperating and revealing, all at once. The poverty-stricken, muddy and alcohol soaked villages along the Lena were depressing to both the author and this reader, but there were also some remarkable characters - some for their delusionals about Russia's history, some for their very dated magical thinking. The atmosphere in the villages is of nearly complete isolation from modern life in the outside world and a profound lack of dreams. It's as if we're plunked down in the 17th Century, but with a lack of Russian cultural richness and sense of adventure. The descriptions of the landscape are wonderful. It's trip into a Russia we in the West don't hear much about.
February 27, 2012
This was a very good first person adventure about travel in a motorized inflatable raft up the Lena river in Siberia. What made this book so interesting is Tayler's multilingualism and his interest in history and Russian politics. He visits many small dying towns along the river and speaks with members of minority cultures and people that the new Soviet system have left behind. The boating was interesting but, until he enters the Arctic Circle, it was not particularly adventurous so he rightly focuses on the views of his guide and the heart wrenching stories of those he meets. His writing could benefit from a little less reliance on a thesaurus or, if his vocabulary is truly that amazing, he would benefit his readers by not going so overboard.
August 12, 2021
Nice Travelogue of the Lena River
The author travels the Lena River in Siberia and learns the culture and people who live there. He looks back at Russia’s history and present. Very good and very interesting.
The author travels the Lena River in Siberia and learns the culture and people who live there. He looks back at Russia’s history and present. Very good and very interesting.
February 9, 2016
Quite an enjoyable and informative book about a remarkable journey down Siberia's river Lena. Down in the sense of going downstream, perhaps 'up' in the sense that the journey is south to north.
More important Jeffrey Tayler brings his unique insight as an American resident of Russia (Moscow area) to the historical stories of this area. Like his earlier work Siberian Dawn, it is as much focused on the trials and daily challenges of people as his own challenges from the journey.
The people in this book were in many cases outcasts from the "good old" USSR as exiles and criminals real and imagined, but managed to cobble together a life that had a certain kind of comforting (for them) stability, but when the USSR fractured apart, so did the tenuous support lifeline the people in this area depended on, and mostly their lives have been in a downward spiral since. To say that the capitalists of the post-USSR era were not interested in this 'internal' penal colony and purgatory would be a kind way of expressing the truth.
Tayler's writing is both colorful and very descriptive. Let me quote just one (abridged) passage:
More important Jeffrey Tayler brings his unique insight as an American resident of Russia (Moscow area) to the historical stories of this area. Like his earlier work Siberian Dawn, it is as much focused on the trials and daily challenges of people as his own challenges from the journey.
The people in this book were in many cases outcasts from the "good old" USSR as exiles and criminals real and imagined, but managed to cobble together a life that had a certain kind of comforting (for them) stability, but when the USSR fractured apart, so did the tenuous support lifeline the people in this area depended on, and mostly their lives have been in a downward spiral since. To say that the capitalists of the post-USSR era were not interested in this 'internal' penal colony and purgatory would be a kind way of expressing the truth.
Tayler's writing is both colorful and very descriptive. Let me quote just one (abridged) passage:
"Around midnight the sun slipped behind the pine-serrated ridges. The orange sky shaded into lavender, glowed phosphorescent green for two or three hours, and then, finally, lightened into the rose of dawn. {...} At times we heard the echoing roar of a brown bear (one night a hungry male tore open an anthill fifteen feet from our tents and gobbled up its inhabitants); [...] Was it any wonder that shamanism orignated here, among Yakuts and Evenks dwelling alone, scattered throughout the wilds, for months on end, with their reindeer? In the fine, tremulous light, trees and stones, rivers and brooks, all acquired spirits, all breathed with a hidden life force." [from Chapter 9]
November 5, 2012
Alienating male gaze.
February 15, 2018
Adventure book with a heavy dose of Siberian history - worthy read to feed my fascination with the Russian nation. From the brutal Cossack's founding of settlements along the north flowing Lena during the 17th century to the brutal post-perestroika reality Jeffrey found on his perilous river epic during 2004. A bleak land, soaked in alcohol, with a bleak future (low birth rate, declining life expectancy, etc.). No doubt an environment best left to nature. After reading Kotkin's 'Stalin - Vol. II' this book fills in many of the details about the dictator's murderous ways. It's not like Russia looms large in our own nation's latest vicissitudes.
Can't help wondering if we're not heading for a similar government - incompetence partnered with mobster management - a wondrous white supremacy on display. Release the pot smokers and move the criminals from the White House to the Big House - please.
Jeffrey's prose goes purple when he tries too hard to describe the glory of his hazardous journey down the Lena to the Laptev Sea. Just my persnickety nitpicking.
Can't help wondering if we're not heading for a similar government - incompetence partnered with mobster management - a wondrous white supremacy on display. Release the pot smokers and move the criminals from the White House to the Big House - please.
Jeffrey's prose goes purple when he tries too hard to describe the glory of his hazardous journey down the Lena to the Laptev Sea. Just my persnickety nitpicking.
May 14, 2019
I liked this way more than I expected to. The protagonist gave the impression of being a classic "colonialism is inspiring," kind of guy who likes to charge into expeditions without adequate preparation. A real Shackleton.
While I'm not entirely sure that he isn't such a person, he wrote a book that is mostly about other people and their relationship to their country and history. Vivid descriptions and bleak outlooks and people being kind of happy in spite of it and other people just being tragically, perpetually drunk because there's nothing else for them kept me engaged.
I don't foresee an end to my continuous interest in books about north woods.
While I'm not entirely sure that he isn't such a person, he wrote a book that is mostly about other people and their relationship to their country and history. Vivid descriptions and bleak outlooks and people being kind of happy in spite of it and other people just being tragically, perpetually drunk because there's nothing else for them kept me engaged.
I don't foresee an end to my continuous interest in books about north woods.
December 20, 2018
The journey is well described by someone who was much more patient with the drunken locals than I would have been. Most interesting is the resignation of the populous to their changed circumstances with the fall of the Soviet Union. No more subsidies or preference for living remotely but they soldier on in their own ways. A sad book in many ways but full of interesting things. (Purchased at Daunt Books, London)
August 26, 2024
Although presented as an adventure chronicle, this is really a sociological study. The river interludes, even though sometimes harrowing, mainly serve as segues from one benighted post-soviet village to another, each unsparingly profiled by an author who is adept at getting people to talk and who really, really wants to love this highly troubled country.
November 3, 2020
Well-written with some achingly beautiful and visual sentences. I knew in picking up this book that I would enjoy it as I have enjoyed this author before. I also learned a lot about Russia and its minority cultures. I am, as always, impressed by Mr. Taylor’s writing prowess.
November 3, 2020
Well done
Finally, a travelogue that reads as a story told through almost confession. What a great read! Highly recommend this book.
Finally, a travelogue that reads as a story told through almost confession. What a great read! Highly recommend this book.
November 3, 2019
Very interesting view of a part of Russia that's rarely talked about. Obviously biased, given that it's a travelogue.
June 30, 2024
River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny by Jeffrey Tayler
This is extraordinary trip not just trough Siberia but through more than three hundred years of brutal, inhuman, and barbarous history from the Czars to Putin. Brilliantly written and superbly edited. Fast moving without a dull moment. Worthy of more than five stars.
EXCERPTS;
In the sixteenth century Russia was poised to shed its identity as Rus’, a European state of Eastern Slavs, and become Russia, a country that would be ruled by a majority Russian population but comprise more than one hundred ethnic groups on two continents, practicing not only Orthodox Christianity but also Judaism, Islam, Shamanism, and Buddhism. Muscovy and other north Russian principalities, most notably that of Novgorod, had already penetrated the European Arctic, taking advantage of the isolation that distance and cold afforded them from Tatar-Mongolian overlords, whose presence was strongest in the warmer and more fertile regions of the south, in what today is Ukraine.
Cossacks ventured down the Lena and its tributaries out into the Arctic and Pacific oceans, sailed through the channel dividing Asia from North America, and thereby delineated Russia’s easternmost boundaries. Cape Dezhnyov, Russia’s easternmost tip (just fifty-three miles from Alaska), bears the surname of the Cossack chieftain Semyon who in 1648 first navigated the strait, preceding by eight decades the Danish explorer Vitus Bering after which it would be (unjustly) named. It is even possible that some of Dezhnyov’s men found themselves shipwrecked on Alaska’s shores.
initiating the annexation of Siberia, Ivan the Terrible and the Cossacks facilitated Russia’s transformation from a middle-size European state into the largest country on earth, a Eurasian superpower with ports on seven seas covering, during the Soviet days, one-sixth of the planet’s land surface.
This is extraordinary trip not just trough Siberia but through more than three hundred years of brutal, inhuman, and barbarous history from the Czars to Putin. Brilliantly written and superbly edited. Fast moving without a dull moment. Worthy of more than five stars.
EXCERPTS;
In the sixteenth century Russia was poised to shed its identity as Rus’, a European state of Eastern Slavs, and become Russia, a country that would be ruled by a majority Russian population but comprise more than one hundred ethnic groups on two continents, practicing not only Orthodox Christianity but also Judaism, Islam, Shamanism, and Buddhism. Muscovy and other north Russian principalities, most notably that of Novgorod, had already penetrated the European Arctic, taking advantage of the isolation that distance and cold afforded them from Tatar-Mongolian overlords, whose presence was strongest in the warmer and more fertile regions of the south, in what today is Ukraine.
Cossacks ventured down the Lena and its tributaries out into the Arctic and Pacific oceans, sailed through the channel dividing Asia from North America, and thereby delineated Russia’s easternmost boundaries. Cape Dezhnyov, Russia’s easternmost tip (just fifty-three miles from Alaska), bears the surname of the Cossack chieftain Semyon who in 1648 first navigated the strait, preceding by eight decades the Danish explorer Vitus Bering after which it would be (unjustly) named. It is even possible that some of Dezhnyov’s men found themselves shipwrecked on Alaska’s shores.
initiating the annexation of Siberia, Ivan the Terrible and the Cossacks facilitated Russia’s transformation from a middle-size European state into the largest country on earth, a Eurasian superpower with ports on seven seas covering, during the Soviet days, one-sixth of the planet’s land surface.
February 6, 2010
I loved this book! It made me want to get out and go on adventure. The author travels the length of the 10th longest river in the world and details his experience. He talks about meeting isolated populations of native people and Russian immigrants as well as discussing the history of eastern Russia. His descriptions of the river and the people are vivid, I had a hard time putting this book down.
I recently read this for a second time and it was still a page turner. I found his descriptions of the various settlements of the Lena even more fascinating a second time around. I know I'll come back to this book again, too!
I recently read this for a second time and it was still a page turner. I found his descriptions of the various settlements of the Lena even more fascinating a second time around. I know I'll come back to this book again, too!
June 8, 2012
The Lena River, most of it miles wide, is one of the world's longest. This tale is of two men who want to travel 2400 miles of it together in a rubber raft, heading toward Tiksi, an outpost on the arctic Laptev Sea. One of the travelers is a Russian army veteran--a true outdoorsman; the other, the author, is an American adventurer and journalist living in Russia. Unseasonable storms spell danger. Before their trip ends, the author visits the mostly decaying Siberian settlements along the way and introduces some of the inhabitants of this neglected part of Russia. It's a good story.
April 14, 2008
I loved this book. Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older, but I never thought that I'd be into stories about guys traveling into the wilds of the north. And by "north" I mean way beyond the arctic circle. Maybe it's because I'm a slavophile. Whatever the reason, and even though I didn't agree with the small political quips of the author, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
May 4, 2012
The author presented a very clear view of life along the Lena River. Siberia has long been a source of facination for me and this portrayal of the people who inhabit the desolate villages is something I won’t forget. The basis for this adventure is the land and seascape but as harsh and intriguing as the environment is, the people are what I’ll most remember about this book
October 3, 2014
This was not only an exciting account of Jeffrey Tayler's 2400 mile journey down the Lena River to high above the Artic Circle in a custom-built boat with Vadim, a Soviet army veteran, but we are introduced to people who live in isolation along the river. We also learn a lot about Russian history.
September 21, 2011
I want to read more books like this. Tayler writes with such immediacy of presence, one travels with him rather than after him. Well done, highly recommended.
April 5, 2009
Great narrative tone: both honest and sympathetic to others yet he offers the occassional sardonic zinger. Contains lyrical pasages on landscape as well as intersting cultural asides.
December 8, 2011
A decent read, but not one I'd recommend. Not quite an adventure tale, not quite historical. Would have been better if I'd known more Russian.
November 29, 2011
Captivating adventure story coupled with unusually keen insight on contemporary Siberian life.
December 6, 2014
I'm not sure if I didn't like this book because the writing was weak or because there wasn't one ounce of resolution. I do appreciate its examination of the after math of Soviet Russia.
February 7, 2015
For fans of Siberia
March 29, 2015
One of my favorite adventure stories. Tough guy.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews