The third book of memoirs of Yuri Kolker retraces the outset of his life in Israel: the joys and sorrows of a refugee who had fled the USSR in the Orwellian year of 1984; the collisions of everyday life and spiritual nature, love and friendship; and the cultural situation in the Russian-speaking Israel and the Russian West. The memoir highlights the unusual plight of a Russian poet submerged into non-Russian milieu of a lofty but alien idealism. The protagonist chooses both a pattern of behaviour which is both unexpected and unique. The book rests on Kolker's archive files including his...