{"product_id":"young-heroes-of-the-soviet-union-a-memoir-and-a-reckoning-9780812978773","title":"Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this \"urgent and enthralling reckoning with family and history\" (Andrew Solomon), an American writer returns to Russia to face a family history that still haunts him. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY JENNIFER SZALAI, \u003ci\u003eTHE NEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlex Halberstadt's quest takes him across the troubled, enigmatic land of his birth, where decades of Soviet totalitarianism shaped and fractured three generations of his family. In Ukraine, he tracks down his paternal grandfather--most likely the last living bodyguard of Joseph Stalin. He revisits Lithuania, his Jewish mother's home, to examine the legacy of the Holocaust and the pernicious anti-Semitism that remains largely unaccounted for. And he returns to his birthplace, Moscow, where his grandmother designed homespun couture for Soviet ministers' wives, his mother consoled dissidents at a psychiatric hospital, and his father made a dangerous living by selling black-market American records. Halberstadt also explores his own story: that of an immigrant growing up in New York, another in a line of sons separated from their fathers by the tides of politics and history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eYoung Heroes of the Soviet Union\u003c\/i\u003e is a moving investigation into the fragile boundary between history and biography. As Halberstadt revisits the sites of his family's formative traumas, he uncovers a multigenerational transmission of fear, suffering, and rage. And he comes to realize something more: Nations, like people, possess formative traumas that penetrate into the most private recesses of their citizens' lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/26\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812978773\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.54lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.19w x 0.63d","brand":"Alex Halberstadt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38027993612469,"sku":"9780812978773","price":15.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_b393a0fc-be40-41fb-a0c1-7fdc32fa2c61.jpg?v=1609194298","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/young-heroes-of-the-soviet-union-a-memoir-and-a-reckoning-9780812978773","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}