Through Siberia by Accident

Through By SiberiaBy Accident is a book about a journey that didn't happen - and what happened instead. Dervla Murphy found herself stymied by multiple minor injuries while still thousands of miles from her original destination, Ussuriland in the Russian Far East. She therefore spent the next three months amidst the vastness of Eastern Siberia, travelling by train and paddle-steamer.

Her wanderings provided many supruses and people greeted her with extraordinary hospitality. Even today, foreign travellers are so rare in some towns that this maimed Irish Babushka was the first Western European the locals had ever met. Yet many of them spontaneously welcomed her into their homes where she enjoyed stimulating conversations about a range of subjects from post-Soviet social problems to the unique inhabitants of Lake Baikal's depths.