Eighty-two years after Moses Dibobis escaped from the Lithuanian hamlet of Birzai with nothing but a sack lunch, the author journeys back to this former Soviet enclave looking for a link to his grandfather—something greater than their shared receding hairline and sense of humor. What he finds on this wild road trip is a place where premium vodka is cheaper than water, spa treatments are more than a little invasive, and that Stalin theme parks are just the beginning of the odd charms of this beguiling nation. Through it all, David Smiedt takes all that is irreverent about modern-day Molvania and delivers a charming, funny narrative that captures the bizarre appeal of his ancestral homeland.
