Kalder's offball, offbeat and rather strange report from forgotten corners of the ethnic republics of Tatarstan, Kalmykia, Mari El and Udmurtia in what was once the Soviet Union. Kalder revels in being no-place. Obsessed with a quest he never fully understands Kalder boldly goes where no man has gone before: in the deserts of Kalmykia he stumbles upon a city dedicated to chess and a forgotten tribe of Mongols; in Mari El, home to Europe's last pagan nation, he meets the Chief Druid and participates in an ancient rite; while in the bleak industrial badlands of Udmurtia, Kalder looks for Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK 47 and inadvertently becomes a TV star. Profane yet wise, utterly honest yet full of lies, Lost Cosmonaut is an eye- opening, blackly comic tour of our alien planet.  (EUR199, $19.95)