The True Adven­tures of Gidon Lev is the sto­ry of a charm­ing, play­ful octo­ge­nar­i­an Holo­caust sur­vivor, a Cal­i­forn­ian thir­ty years his junior, and the writ­ing of a book about Gidon’s extra­or­di­nary life. Of the approx­i­mate­ly fif­teen thou­sand chil­dren who were impris­oned in the Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camp of Térézin, only an esti­mat­ed nine­ty-two sur­vived. Gidon Lev is one of those chil­dren. With humor, human­i­ty, and com­pas­sion, The True Adven­tures of Gidon Lev offers insights into car­ry­ing on after unimag­in­able loss, a primer on Jew­ish and Israeli his­to­ry, and astute obser­va­tions about the cul­ture and ethos of the mod­ern state of Israel and its trag­ic con­flict. Weav­ing Gidon’s invalu­able mem­o­ries togeth­er with the cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal back­sto­ry of time and place, Julie Gray invites read­ers inside the process of min­ing mem­o­ries for truths and his­to­ry for lessons.