Lire Magazine Best Travel Book
Take four friends, put them on two Ural motorcycles (complete with
sidecars), send them off on a 2,500-mile odyssey retracing history's
most famous retreat, add what some might consider an excessive amount of
Vodka, and you've got Sylvain Tesson's Berezina, a riotous and erudite
book that combines travel, history, comradery, and adventure.
The retreat of Napoleon's Grande Armée from Russia culminated, after a
humiliating loss, with the crossing of the River Berezina, a word that
henceforth became synonymous with unmitigated disaster for the French
and national pride for the Russians. Two hundred years after this
battle, Sylvain Tesson and his friends retrace Napoleon's retreat, along
the way reflecting on the lessons of history, the meaning of defeat, and
the realities of contemporary Europe. A great read for history buffs and
for anyone who has ever dreamed of an adventure that is out of the
ordinary.