Paths of Stones

Paths of Stones is a memoir that addresses both the worst and the best of humanity. The author, Cynthia Dickstein, wanted to learn about her Jewish ancestors from Russia, learn where their paths took them. With years of research and almost unbelievable good fortune to meet many of their descendants, she discovered some past and present happiness, but too much sorrow and tragedy. Murder by Cossacks, executions and torture by Stalin, starvation during the siege of Leningrad, families burned by Hitler in their hiding places in their family's hometown of Glubokoye. She herself even had her own confrontation with the KGB on one of her 20 trips to the USSR and Russia. Thus the author also reveals her path, so different from those earlier generations. Hers is a very unordinary life full of desired adventure...... but not without sadness.