Amazon BooksMisha, was a young Jewish lad living in the Soviet Ukraine under Russian rule, after his father was kidnapped from his home, in front of his family, taken away and eventually murdered by the KGB. This experience began to change Misha’s perception of the world as after his father was taken, they took his family home and he, his mother and sibling became one of the poor families of Kiev.
Taking place primarily in Kiev, Ukraine this story traverses the time period just before the fall of the communist USSR through the independence of Ukraine, when armed with his lessons learned in life, he manipulated the system and became an extremely wealthy man, still harboring deep feelings of resentment towards the KGB/USSR that had stolen the life of his father, when Misha was just a young kid, thereby his comfortable lifestyle, up to that time.
Misha moved through life with schemes to achieve the power and finances he felt were his due, he engaged in anything from selling drugs, to arms dealing, to real estate, to the unnecessary injections given to live stock to cure contrived diseases, anything that would bring in the cash.
Sometimes he even felt guilty about the things he did in order to make money, things he had learned under the rule of the USSR. However, even though he was not necessarily a religious man he often went to synagogue because he felt, in his words; ‘safe, pure and spiritual.’ Through synagogue he also enjoyed the connection to the Jewish community, availing him of powerful business connections.
Even though Misha did corrupt things to get ahead through his entrepreneurial endeavors, he convinced himself that he would balance corruption with decency whenever he could. Although, when his back was against the wall, murder was the thing that he did well, imagining he lived in the style of Michael Corleone, in the Godfather movie, starting from his first kill.
But at last he stepped on one too many toes, ended up in the hospital with a bullet lodged in his head. Did he die? Read the book and find out for yourself. Big money, crime, government misconduct, definitely something to think about!!
Good writing skills, good character building. This was indeed, a Goodread
Reviewed by: Connie Jordan
December 10, 2015
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