midnight, reading in bed

Guess it’s no coincidence that this name came up in both Ian Frazier’s Travels in Siberia and in John Vaillant’s Tiger - two books steeped in the history and living conditions of Russia’s far north. I know it as a very fine film, with stunning Akira Kurasawa cinematography; I did not know it was also a book, very well known by anyone who was educated in Russia. I rank the film among my lifetime top three, along with To Kill a Mockingbird and (don’t laugh) Stanley and Livingstone.