On Thin Ice: A Radio 4 Book of the Week: An Explorer's Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance and Survival

'This almost insanely intrepid and dangerous trek in remotest Siberia is astonishing in itself. But it also brings invaluable experience of Russian reactions to the war against Ukraine. Altogether extraordinary' Colin Thubron, author of The Amur River

In early 2022, Charlie Walker set out to hike 600 miles along the frozen rivers of Siberia. He hoped to cut through the myth of the gulag and the permafrost to understand who its people are and how they reckon with their haunted past, as well as what the future might hold for this remote corner of our world. But on 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine, with devastating consequences. What had begun as an adventure swiftly descended into a paranoid nightmare, as Walker began to suspect he was being monitored by the Russian authorities. Shortly afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned.

On Thin Ice juxtaposes the harsh beauty of a Siberian winter with a thriller-like series of events that exposes the dark heart of Putin's propaganda machine. It is both the extraordinary record of one man’s walk through the most inhospitable place on earth and a powerful insight into a deeply troubled – and troubling – nation.