Man And The North By Sergi Solovyev And Others

This coffee-table book documents a 6,000-mile expedition by dogsled across northern-most Siberia in the 1980s.

The Soviets wanted to show that "The North" was still important to them, even (or especially) after the excitement of space travel. And they wanted to show that the Soviet Union "owned" living in the North.

And "owned" exploiting its resources, of course, especially gas and oil.

The book is hard to find although the author has a bunch of them in Russia and would love to get them sold. It may happen.

But anyone interested in northern breeds of dogs would surely enjoy the pictures and the story.

Too bad they used such incompetent translators! The pages are side-by-side Russian and English, but the translators left chunks out of the story, so there's less English than Russian.

And they violated the cardinal rule of translation, which is to use people who have a native grasp of the target language. I know someone who thinks the book's English is charming, but it really grates on me.

Especially since the rest of the book was done well. The photos are nice, the print is clear and straight, the binding is strong....

Anyway. A chronicle of a fascinating but nearly unknown chapter in modern sled dog history!

Pros: Amazing expedition, fascinating pictures

Cons: Truly awful translation