The Caucasus is a region that captivates writers. Whether it is Philip Marsden on Armenia or Neal Ascherson on the Black Sea, books inspired here rarely disappoint; now Stories I Stole, Wendell Steavenson"s moving hybrid of reportage and bildungsroman set in Georgia, is the latest entry to this canon. Steavenson"s unusual title betrays the honesty which distinguishes her book. Leaving Time magazine for Tblisi is a strange career move, but Steavenson does not try to dress it up with false excuses; instead, revealing a world of poverty intertwined with drunken camaraderie and undiluted joyousness, her choice explains itself through her experiences. While her anecdotes are episodic, it becomes clear that this randomness is essential to life in Tblisi, where best friends may shoot each other, the electricity supply is as predictable as the political situation, and a person"s humanity is judged by their ability to drink toasts into the morning--and survive. With her training as a reporter, Steavenson"s sentences are often curt, and she can describe places with long lists that mask their emotional atmosphere. However, this is more than compensated for by her honesty, the stark beauty of her evocations of landscape, and the sense that she has really penetrated the surface of Georgia. She writes with obvious love of this messed-up place and its people, and this is enough: "Georgia," she writes, "would make a fool out of anyone with the temerity of prediction. The best we can do is to respect our family, love our friends, open a bottle of wine, drink it, and then open another one."--Toby Green