A mesmerizing account of adventure, exploration and friendship in the Russian Far East. Arseniev, a Russian captain who explored much of the region north of Vladivostok at the turn-of-the-century, forged a friendship with the taciturn Dersu, a nomadic Goldi hunter, to whom he owed much of his success. The bond between the men, almost wordless (and much romanticized), heightens Arseniev's obvious love for the wilderness. The book was the source for Kurosowa's magnificent 1976 film, Dersu Uzala.  (SIB24, $16.00)