J. M. Sidorova's "The Age of Ice"

J.M. Sidorova was born in Moscow when it was the capital of the USSR, to the family of an official of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. She attended Moscow State University and the graduate school of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1990 and works as a research professor at the University of Washington, where she studies cellular biology of aging and carcinogenesis.

Here Sidorova dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Age of Ice:

This exercise of imagination could be called an author’s guilty pleasure. What fancy… Heck, why not let it soar? The imaginary, eight hour-long movie The Age of Ice that sometimes plays in my head, is probably directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, whose work had made an indelible impression on me as a teenager, and who would have to come back from the dead to make this one. In this imaginary movie, the main character, Prince Alexander Velitzyn, is occasionally played by Alexander Skarsgård and other times by Benedict Cumberbatch. And Alexander’s brother Andrei —

Here I realize that the task of assigning actors to my characters is more difficult than I thought. I’ve now spent hours poking around IMDB, googling Russian-American actors, and the casts of True Blood and Game of Thrones (because their headshots are lined up so conveniently and there are so many to choose from), and still I’ve made virtually no progress. All I know is that Martin Sawyer is definitely Richard Hammond of the BBC show Top Gear; and other than that, Dr. Merck looks somewhat like the last Russian Emperor Nikolai Romanov, only younger and without a beard; and Anna Velitzyn is close to Princess de Broglie as painted by Ingres. This makes it possible, I guess, for her to be played by Carice van Hoyten who could also play Anna von Welleren, if she’d like. And Elizabeth Goretsky? Hmm, maybe Ellen Page. Or Rachel Weisz. Like I said, it’s not easy.

Learn more about the book and author at J.M. Sidorova's website, blog and the Scribner website.

The Page 69 Test: The Age of Ice.

Writers Read: J. M. Sidorova.

--Marshal Zeringue