Summary and Reviews of God Lives In St. Petersburg by Tom Bissell

God Lives In St. Petersburg by Tom Bissell

God Lives In St. Petersburg

and Other Stories

by Tom Bissell
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  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 1, 2005, 224 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2006, 224 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, but always eerily affecting, these stories show us deeply foreign lands and peoples through our own eyes.

Here are six fictional stories about Americans colliding with a remote and often perilous part of the world:

  • Two journalists, stranded in wartime Afghanistan, are taken in by a warlord who becomes the arbiter of their fates.

  • A female scientist investigating the Aral Sea disaster is drawn into a trap by a former KGB officer.

  • On a hike through Kazakhstan, Jayne and Douglas's marriage unravels when their guide, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghanistan war, takes an unseemly interest in Jayne.

  • The son of an American ambassador addicted to the seamy underside of a Central Asian city finally gets in over his head.

  • In the Pushcart Prize–winning title story, a tortured missionary struggles to reconcile his sexual urges with his faith.

  • A young man just back from a long stint in Kyrgyzstan finds his relationship with his fiancée all but destroyed.

Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, but always eerily affecting, these stories show us deeply foreign lands and peoples through our own eyes. Impressive in both range and emotional acuity, God Lives in St. Petersburg is a stunning fictional debut by a "wildly talented" (Outside) young writer.

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Reviews

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Six stories set in Central Asia, one of them a Pushcart Prize winner, written with deadpan irony and packing quite a punch...continued

Full Review (309 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

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Beyond the Book



About the author & the Aral Sea: In 2001 Tom Bissell traveled throughout Uzbekistan, spending some time in Muynak. Forty years ago Muynak was a busy fishing port on the edge of the Aral Sea, which was formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world but now, due to 40 years of Soviet irrigation policy, is mostly polluted desert. He recorded his thoughts and observations in a memoir, Chasing The Sea, published in 2003, which combined the story of his travels with a chronicle of Uzbekistan's culture and history. His second book, God Lives in St Petersburg,...

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