The main character, a young man named Slava, defies the odds of survival simply through his wit and desire to do what is morally right. He vividly describes the chaos of the worst time in human history. This textured romanticized historical fiction candidly depicts his journey, maneuvering between two evil forces--the zealous collaboration of the Ukrainian police and many of his fellow countrymen with the Nazis versus the Stalinist alternative of almost certain death or exile to Siberia. He depicts his survival in German forced labor camps and of allied bombings. These all occurred after being kidnapped off the street at the age of fifteen by fellow countrymen in the then city of Dnepropetrovsk. He would never see his family again. These were all underpinned by the constant fear of repatriation to the nascent Soviet Union. He feared he would be lumped in with his traitorous Ukrainian countrymen. Under the iron fist of Joseph Stalin, he, too, would be viewed as a traitor, putting the lives of his family in danger. The book gives a heartfelt presentation of the destructive forces permeating the society at the time and the sometimes almost imperceptible thin line between good and evil.
