A colorful depiction of Rosenkranz's quest for identity. . . . An exquisite translation. Moses Rosenkranz's autobiography of his youth is a powerful testimony to the resilience of language and the imagery it can create. Dollenmayer's translation needs to be commended for its thoroughness. Moses Rosenkranz came from impoverished roots in rural Bucovina and gained acclaim for his poetry only late in his life. He survived the same Rumanian fascist work camp as his fellow poet Paul Celan, only to be arrested by the Russians in 1947 and interned in the Gulag for ten years. With his recollections of rural life among Jews, Ukrainians, Rumanians, Poles, and Germans in Bucovina, Rosenkranz recaptures a vanished moment of cultural history.