Historical fiction should both entertain and make readers smarter. Alexander delivers both. Drawing on true stories of life from 1925 onward in Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine, and Romania, Alexander weaves a tale based on interviews with his Jewish European mother-in-law. The story centers around a Jewish young woman married to a blind man, both active in the Communist Party and believing in the system wholeheartedly. In the story, most were considered "disloyal to the regime" if they wanted to leave Romania. The fascinating idea that some Jewish people considered themselves Zionists while others considered themselves Communists, and that these two were mutually exclusive, is not something commonly read in WWII stories.

Beyond the fact that the story is original, tender, and interesting, it is masterful literature about a young couple with passion and ideals. Alexander develops his characters impeccably, perhaps with the advantage of actually knowing them, and he writes riveting descriptions. Instead of simply writing that they were starving, Alexander describes a meal: "...Tina scraped her dish and sucked on the white backbone of the fish. Dr. Barr devoured the head."

The book describes the bitter disappointment in the evolution of the Communist Party, as seen through the eyes of those who lived through that period. Main character Faur thought, "Communism was perfect in theory, and disappointing when given to imperfect people to implement... the communist system that had looked good on paper and the society she now lived in were different. People were people: corrupt, narrow-minded.... Greedy, power-hungry people in the leadership of the Party had hijacked the new regime and turned it into a dictatorship in Romania and in the Soviet Union." Anyone wanting to learn more about the Communist Party in the twentieth century and be entertained throughout should check this one out.

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