I wanted to read this book partly because of the subject and partly because of the author - I remember him from when I was at BYU. But while the subject was interesting, the writing wasn't very good. Browning seems to tell the story this way: he gives the date, he tells a lot of stuff that happened, he throws in some personal accounts that may or may not be related to what just happened, and then he moves on to the next thing that happened. There's no real attempt to follow themes or really develop situations that occurred. It becomes repetitive too, as the same types of things happen often and it's not that interesting to read about it ten different times.

The stories of the people themselves and some of the challenges they face, however, are very interesting. Over and over, they tell of how religion became a dirty little secret during the Communist era, and how they were actively discouraged from believing - or even talking about - God. So when they needed help or wanted to pray, they had no idea how to go about it. The Orthodox faith was very important to older people, but the younger generations didn't find much comfort in the rituals. Family life was not seen as very important, and most families had one child at most. Alcohol use was extremely common. So many of the stories I read said, 'We got married, everything was great, and then he started drinking.'

When the Mormons showed up, there was some suspicion of this "American" church, but the fact that it places so much emphasis on family and that it provides answers to important questions made it very appealing. The book has the story of the growth of the church in Russia, as well as an inside account of what it was like living in the middle of perestroika and the economic upheaval common during the early 90s in Russia.

I would only recommend this one to LDS who are interested in the story. I'm glad I read it, but I won't read it again. 3 stars. ( )