Where bears roam the streets: a Russian journal

In late 2000s, Jeff Parker went to Russia intending to write a book about the country's resurgence as a major global superpower under President Vladimir Putin, and about the emergence, for maybe the first time in history, of a Russian middle class.

But Russia squirms under the pressure of any attempt to pin it down.

In the midst of the social and financial upheaval of the years that followed, the answers Parker sought only raised more questions: What was Russia?

How did it work? How did peple live? How could they eat kholodetz (meat jelly)? As Russia today continues to flex its muscles and isolate itself from the West, Parker looks beyond the global politics to the heart of everyday life by giving us the story of his friendship with Igor, a young barkeep and draft dodger.

What Parker has created is a revealing story of Russian life, told with intelligence, humour and no small amount of misadventure.