This is the unique and remarkable story of a family, spanning more than a century. It has been a labour of love, written with honesty and candour. Many of the stories are beautiful and moving, others reveal uncomfortable truths.
We begin with the author's maternal grandmother who was born into a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland in 1914 before moving to what is now Ukraine as a young child. She would experience the Russian Revolution, epic journeys and the Nazi occupation of Belgium.
Then there is the story of the paternal grandparents who originally came from a shtetl in Bessarabia called Yedinitz. They too would experience the Holocaust and a terrible tragedy.
The next generation (the author's parents) were hidden children during the war in Belgium. They eventually emigrated to Israel to join a socialist community living on a kibbutz.
After leaving the kibbutz, the author's father was recruited by the Israeli Intelligence Agency and the family were relocated to Paris with their two young children. Eventually, the family were to settle in London and made it their permanent home.
Why embark on such an ambitious piece of writing which juxtaposes monumental world events with the deeply personal and intimate experiences of individuals? Put simply, this treasure trove of incredible recollections gives us a lens through which we can view, remember and appreciate the lives of those who lived through extraordinary times, shaping them and the world they lived in.