Siberian Summer is a comedy about three retired women and one of their sons on a journey of self-discovery as they travel the Trans-Siberian Railway from St. Petersburg to Beijing.
The story follows Louise, Beatrice, and Deborah, as they drink, laugh, and bicker their way across a continent. Along for the ride is Peter, Deborah’s apathetic son who’s waiting a little too patiently for his life to begin. The cast of characters is rounded off with Sonya, their formidable young Russian tour guide who refuses to sugarcoat her controversial country.
As Louise deals with her drinking problem by having another drink, Beatrice can’t get over the death of her husband, who was apparently more boring alive than dead. Meanwhile Deborah forces Peter to keep carrying her baggage, figuratively and literarily, as Sonya seems to carry the weight of a corrupt country on her shoulders. But between the five of them, they discover that through love and friendship life’s adventure is far from over, no matter what your age.
From Lenin’s Tomb to Lake Baikal, from the Gobi Desert to The Great Wall of China, Siberian Summer is part history lesson, part geography lesson, and all life lesson.
Keywords:Â Trans-Siberian Railway, travel, Russia, Mongolia, China, Golden years, retired, women, love, laugher, trains, drinking