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With the
charm and edge of a traditional fairy tale, Howard Solomon tells the
story of his family's escape from Tsarist Russia in the 1900s.
It's a story that he learned from his Russian grandparents and one he
retells with quirky humor. "One positive thing about Siberia
was, you didn't have to worry about the future--there was
none." During his escape to Poland, his grandfather, Sam
Udalevich, traveled "less than third class" as he hid in a
manure wagon to cross the border. His grandfather married a
butcher woman named Hannah, who had also fled from Russia to
Poland. With their children, the couple decided to emigrate to
London as stowaways packed in crates with animal kidneys. Next
stop: America, and like many immigrants, the family's name was
changed at Ellis Island.
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