A backpack, a bear, and eight crates of vodka : a memoir / Lev Golinkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Golinkin, Lev, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Golinkin, Lev.

Jews, Russian--Ukraine--Kharkiv--Biography.

Jews, Russian.

Jewish refugees--United States--Biography.

Jewish refugees.

United States.

Ukraine--Kharkiv.

Jews, Russian--United States--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 307 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Doubleday, 2014.

Summary:

Recounts the author's experiences as a young boy fleeing persecution in the late eighties Soviet Union, and his later return to Austria and Eastern Europe as an American adult to track down those who helped his family escape and thank them.

Contents:

Part 1

The Best Parades in the Whole Damn World 7

The Black Witch Comes to Kharkov 18

Oleg and the Mirror 27

Disarming the Adversaries 31

A Marked Mikhail Will Destroy Russia 38

Something Was Different; Something Was in the Air 48

Land of Endless Twilight 53

$130, Two Suitcases, One Piece of Jewelry, Nothing of Value 63

Into the Steppe 79

Part 2

Dozens of Sentinel Grandmas 103

Where People Have No Names 121

The Forester 131

Waking the Nomads 144

Pennies and Peach Slices 149

A Layover in Purgatory 161

Eva 168

A Bleak, Man-Made Horizon 173

Nineteen Million in the Hole 179

The Bosnians Don't Come Out at Night 183

A Simple Request 190

Part 3

This Ain't Ellis Island 201

Refugee Sponsorship for Dummies 208

Where Else Does She Belong? 214

Unfinished Business, Part I; Getting to America 222

Where the Weak Are Killed and Eaten 230

There Are No Cats in America 242

Where Am I and Why Do I Smell Like Bananas? 249

Unfinished Business, Part II: Staying in America 263

Alicia 269

One Man, One Jacket 275

Kilcoyne 281.

ISBN:

9780385537773

0385537778

OCLC:

870663497