This masterpiece of historiography through genealogy traces many stories of multiple generations of the author's ancestors and current family members. Compiled as eight books, the chapters entwine significant portions of the history of Jewish culture, tradition, and transitions with historical explanations of families' and communities' actions. For example, younger sons were sometimes fostered out to relatives so they would not be impressed into service. Their older brothers remained at home, exempt from military service. The book shifts seamlessly from micro to macro examples (and back again) of Jewish life and migration. Book I introduces the author and his family. Subsequent pages tell stories that predate the Exodus out of Egypt to the author's piecing together his family's history through name and location changes, translations, naturalization records, photographs, and Milavetz's recollections of the stories that were told by some of his dynamic family members.

This eminently readable work is a genealogy and history of the author's hidden and well-known ancestors and relatives, of whom Bob Dylan, born Zimmerman, is one. On the macro historical level, there are stories that were uncovered by people insisting that they be acknowledged (for example, when the mass murder by the then retreating Nazis of approximately 100,000 people was finally admitted to) then recently submerged again, as the atrocity had been since the end of World War II. The author summarizes his reason for creating the book by the statement, "By telling some of their stories, I hope to preserve and expand the telling of our history and of their life stories. I hope to reconcile the story of my family with that of the Jewish people as a whole." The result of the author's efforts is monumental.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

A 2026 Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist

Return to USR Home