This is definitely not your usual love triumphs over all obstacleskind of novel. Rather, Dr. Henya Shanun-Klein hascaptured the pathos of the protagonist, Adel, from birththrough her life’s journey to what seems the ends-of-the-earth tofind and bring back the love of her life, her husband Itchale.During the late 1930’s, as war was upon Europe, the SovietRed Army purged the shtetls of young Jewish boys. Caught up inthis terrible happening was Adel’s new bridegroom. Dr. Shanun-Klein masterfully weaves the true facts of this story into an incredibleEurasia geographic travel log, the likes of which, if the storywas not factual, one would surmise it was fiction.Somehow, the author has uniquely employed her own lifeexperiences, including those of being a psychologist and thanatologist(study of death, dying and bereavement), to provide thereader with a greater sense of empathy for Adel than an authorwithout her unique background might otherwise produce.It is not only the wonderment of this story but the author’sunique ability to bring to the reader excruciating details of theprotagonist’s challenges on her journey. She moves the reader fromwords on a page to literally being in the scene with Adel feeling thegrayness of the times, but more importantly feeling her boundlessspirit of faith and determination to conqueror the evil about her.Move over Don Quixote, for this is not a story of imagination,but of a young woman through insurmountable travails,xivwho literally “did climb every mountain, and ford every stream” asthose lyrics from The Sound of Music regale.Dr. Shanun-Klein, thank you for allowing the reader totransform the words on a page into vivid pictures of perseverance and for providing us a real page turner!