Stand­ing in the dilap­i­dat­ed syn­a­gogue that his great-grand­par­ents called home, David found it hard to believe he had made it to Shep­etov­ka, Ukraine. His grand­fa­ther told him the vil­lage no longer exist­ed, but David knew better.

Two years pri­or, fol­low­ing col­lege grad­u­a­tion, David trav­eled to the Sovi­et Union on a 30-day sight­see­ing tour. But after find­ing him­self caught up in the mid­dle of a coup d€€tat that desta­bi­lized the coun­try, he end­ed up stay­ing abroad for two and half tumul­tuous years.

From sur­viv­ing per­ilous run-ins with the Russ­ian mafia and Sovi­et mil­i­tary to search­ing for his her­itage in a remote vil­lage, David’s sto­ry is a riv­et­ing com­ing-of-age memoir.

Through it all, David dis­cov­ers an unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion to his Jew­ish iden­ti­ty. By the time he leaves Rus­sia, he real­izes that the road less trav­eled can lead to unex­pect­ed adven­ture, and that look­ing back­ward some­times pro­vides the best insight into how to move forward.