This is the black and white version of the book.
What would make Jacob, a prosperous businessman run for his life, leaving everything behind but the coat on his back? What would make him send his children ahead, alone through the treacherous countryside to meet in Romania? Extraordinary times, molding ordinary people, result in living legacies seldom understood by their ancestors. We are the sum of the unique experiences and biology which form us; some visible, and some historical. Individual lives may seem ordinary by the standards of some, but when threaded through a tapestry of family, place, and time, a compelling pattern emerges. While this story encompasses seven generations of Zaslavskys and their descendants, it is also emblematic of how history shapes family inheritance; intergenerational messaging, self-discovery, and the understanding that no life is ordinary, but a struggle. Some rise above the struggle, achieving difficult things, and some remain locked in patterns of hardship and despair.