Anna Aizic

The Circles of Life Anna Aizic

"But how do you pack your whole life into two suitcases?" This memoir in letters is an intimate account of an important historical document, about life during and after World War II in the stunning port city of Odessa, Ukraine. That area of the world (Russia, Crimea, Ukraine, Jerusalem...) has been in our news in recent days and remains an enigma. The Circles of Life is a memoir in letters, depicting a vibrant and lyrical collection of essays that capture Aizic's extended family's journey from the horrors of war, through the dirge of Communism, to lives of hope in Israel and America. I will let Author Aizic's eloquent words speak: ... Can you imagine the courage and charisma Grandpa Izya and my father Emil had to have to run a business in the 60's behind the Iron Curtain of Communist Odessa?... The freezing apartment at Ostrovidova 97 Street was always filled with eager minds ready to inhale the collective wisdom of the People of six thousand years ago and (my grandfather) Zeida was always happy to share it.... For years Zeida led his family and friends through the darkness of Communist Russia, yet he was never permitted to reach the Promised Land... Dor Hamidbar... The flight (to Israel) gave us our first taste of the capitalist lifestyle...instead of water we were served Coca-Cola.... Living in America is not that easy of a task because it comes with the huge responsibilities of freedom, the need to choose to either become your own very best self or to become absolutely nothing. That is the price attached to any free society... You see how many stories our family has? Before it is all lost and gone, what choice do I have but to keep writing it all down? So I collected bits from here and there...translated articles and poems and letters from Hebrew and Russian, I put them all in this book. For you.... " I highly recommend this book. The history of the individual is the history of the world. Anna Aizic shows us this as she reveals the tragedy, and secrets of her family as well as the love and humour. She wrote these letters to her children, and I am thankful that she is allowing us to bear witness as well.