Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter 1
2. Contents 6
3. Maps 7
4. Foreword 8
5. 1. A Cache of Letters 9
6. 2. Gone to America 16
7. 3. War Disrupts 24
8. 4. Inflation Spirals 34
9. 5. Scythe against Stone 43
10. 6. Wrapping Tefillin 47
11. 7. Eli Sends Money 52
12. 8. Making Ends Meet 56
13. 9. My Parents Separate, Reconcile, Divorce 61
14. 10. Meer Joins the Red Army 66
15. 11. My Marriage and My Divorce 76
16. 12. Reindeer in the Arctic Circle 80
17. 13. Taiga, Tundra, Gulag 88
18. 14. Papa, Come Home! 97
19. 15. Jewish Passion, Jewish Suffering 101
20. 16. A Terrible Night 104
21. 17. It Is My Turn Now to Try 115
22. 18. The Soul Suffers 118
23. 19. Ragamuffins, Barefoot, and Hungry 123
24. 20. When the River Ice Flows 134
25. 21. Waiting to Leave 145
26. 22. The Moloch of Ambition 152
27. 23. In Riga, at Last 157
28. 24. Olga 171
29. 25. Al Anon 177
30. 26. A Plot in the Jewish Section 180
31. Afterword 183
32. Acknowledgments 185
33. About the Author 186
34. Sources 187
35. Appendix 1. My Father’s Travel Notes 188
36. Appendix 2. Understanding the Russian Pale 196