Overview

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.

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9781595989611

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Reviews

"Cynthia Dickstein has led a rich life of drama, world travel, and adventure, as she proves over and over again in her memoir, Paths of Stones. The story she tells begins in a shtetl in Russia, where oppression and tragedy drove her family to emigrate to the United States. Cynthia's life brought the story full circle as she organized and led numerous professional exchange groups from America to Russia during the Cold War and beyond. She provides the historical backdrop as we follow her into places as varied as Mongolia's Gobi Desert, the streets of Moscow and Iran. She falls in love, celebrates friendship, mourns losses, and even has a confrontation with the KGB--which she wins! The book is a tribute to the complexity of life, along with Cynthia's open mind, heart, and desire to understand other cultures. The reader is in for a treat. -Maura Casey, Former editorial writer for the New York Times ""I very much enjoyed reading Paths of Stones and was fascinated to learn of the author's extraordinary life. I loved her vivid, forthright style of recalling the past. As a memoir should, she invoked the richness of a life well lived. As my father was in the CIA, operational in the Middle East and Africa, he and we only knew the Soviet Union and Russians as the great enemy--the ""Evil Empire."" From reading this book, I now appreciate the unheard, unseen humanity of the ordinary Russians she reached. Thank you to Cynthia Dickstein for serving, all these years, as a positive force for our collective humanity."" -Tom Grogan, author of Chasing the Invisible Paths of Stones is a memoir of the author's rich and purposeful life and that of her hard-working immigrant relatives. It is one part Russian history; one part investigative journalism as she uncovers facts about her extended family - including one she found by accident in a way that almost defies belief - and one part fascinating travelogue, as Cynthia brings the reader along with her on some of the 20 professional trips she has taken to Russia and the former USSR (in the middle of the Cold War), as well as Mongolia and Iran. But most of all, Paths of Stones is a celebration of life, love, and friendship, as the author learns about the family members who came before her and the extraordinary journeys they traveled. In so doing, she learns much about her own magical life and her own journey as well. -Timothy Leland, Pulitzer Prize winner and founder of the Boston Globe Spotlight Team"

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