Where Bears Roam The Streets

In the summer of 2008, Jeff Parker went to Russia intending to write a book about the country's resurgence as a major global superpower under president and then prime minister Vladimir Putin. The book reveals a friendship Parker made with a young barkeep and draft dodger named Igor. What Parker has created is the story of Igor as a refracting mirror for the story of Russia, told with intelligence, humor, and no small amount of misadventure.

Jeff Parker is the author of the Ovenman and The Taste of Penny. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.