Why read Lost Believers?

Book cover of Lost Believers

Book description

A rich, immersive debut novel, inspired by true events, about a meeting between two women in 1970s Soviet Russia—a deeply religious homesteader living in isolation with her family on the Siberian taiga and an ambitious scientist—that irrevocably changes the course of both of their lives.

Galina, a promising young geologist…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Lost Believers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alyson Hagy

Author

I was drawn to this book because of its focus on a group of religious believers who have separated themselves so thoroughly from civilization that they haven’t had contact with other humans for 50 years. How can you not be intrigued by that premise?

Zhorov creates a rich, sympathetic portrait of the believers (complete with a ghost) as they come in contact with young Soviet scientists who are surveying the Siberian wilderness for possible mining/industrial development. The scientists, educated idealists who have great hopes for the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin, are forever changed by their encounters with…

From Alyson's 3 favorite reads in 2023.