“Siemens gathers incidents of a Moscow habitus, the layering ghosts of poetry and performances, coups and commemoration, stilled yet wide-eyed and camera-ready at pavement level. At once retracing and composing the montage of her own ever-renewed belonging to Russia’s metropole, she invites her readers-cum-viewers to travel the cultural plot of one of the world’s most indefatigable cities.”

John L. Plews, University of Alberta

“Moscow receives the treatment often reserved for her younger, more glittering sister, St. Petersburg, in that she is seen as a city of the collective creative imagination. The great literary memes and historical themes of Russia wander the back alleys and grand squares, the Metro stations sing chastushki, the theatres are themselves players with checkered pasts, and rival place names shove each other about, jockeying for the spotlight. Siemens writes the city as she walks it, herself playing Virgil in the Moscow Circles.”

Nick Glossop, CJSR 88.5 FM