14th July 1924: In a Warsaw buried under feet of snow and Russian rule, Venyedikt Yeroslavsky, a dissolute young Polish mathematician, is roused from his bed by two officials from the Ministry of Winter and dispatched to Siberia in search of his long-exiled father. Boarding the Trans-Siberian Express, Venyedikt embarks on an extraordinary journey through a frozen realm, through political, criminal, scientific, philosophical and amorous intrigues to finally stand face to face with something utterly alien.

The catalyst for this frosty metamorphosis of 20th Century history is the impact of the Tunguska asteroid, deep in Siberia, in 1908. ICE's meteor is composed from a strange new form of matter that reveals a hitherto hidden relation between the laws of thermodynamics and logic.

This connection has a physical manifestation - coallessing as quantum apparitions known as 'Gleissen'. Otherworldly, unknowable, mute - these apparitions of ice and frost stalk the land bringing endless winter wherever they venture. As they move through Russia, agriculture collapses and people flock to cities seeking protection from the deadly cold. But in their glacial wake the Gleissen also leave incredible wealth, their 'black physics' transmuting elements into strange new forms allowing new technologies, industries and economies to prosper.

This has drastically altered the global balance of power; the Tsar still rules Russia, the Belle Époque endures, and the First World War never happened. At the heart of it all lies Siberia - the 'Wild East' - a magnet for all the political, religious and scientific fevers shaking the world at the dawn of 20th century. It is the crucible where black physics and the cold logic of winter will forge a new history.

So why has Venyedikt been dispatched by the Ministry of Winter to deepest Siberia to make contact with his exiled father? Is it because Benedict's exiled father has managed, somehow, to communicate with the Gleissen? Or are there other agendas at play?

Jacek Dukaj (b. 1974) read his first Stanislaw Lem novel at the age of six, published his first short story at the age of 14 and has gone on to publish six novels, five novellas and three short story collections. He is a six-time winner of the Janusz A. Zajdel Award, a four-time winner of the Jerzy Zulawski Award and a winner of a European Literary Award and a Koscielski Award. A short animated movie by Tomasz Baginski based on this short story Katedra (The Cathedral) was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003. Dukaj lives in Cracow.

Ursula Phillips is an award-winning British translator of Polish literary and academic works and a writer on Polish literary history with background in both Russian and Polish Studies and a doctorate in Polish 19th-century literature; she has contributed to and co-edited five volumes of critical essays on aspects of Polish literature. She has translated 19th-century and early 20th-century women authors Maria Wirtemberska, Narcyza Zmichowska, Zofia Nalkowska, Pola Gojawiczynska and Maria Kuncewiczowa, as well as contemporaries Wieslaw Mysliwski, Agnieszka Taborska and Piotr Pazinski. She is an Honorary Research Fellow of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.