The Taste of Dreams is both a quest for the romantic Russia of the author's dreams, and a tale of amazement as she discovers and gets caught up in the new, anarchic Russia emerging from its Soviet constraints. At its heart is the story of caviar - beluga, the rarest type of sturgeon, harvested from the Caspian Sea. It is now an endangered species, and no one knows how to - or wants to - stop the plunder. Intelligent, funny, and enormously engaging, this is a modern tour through the intricacies of the new Russia. Vanora Bennett writes for The Times of London and is a former Moscow correspondent for Reuters and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya.