A fictional alternate history book published in 2007. This book has won several science fiction awards: the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.

Daniel Sempere and his wife are content with life and baby. When a strange walks in the book shop and threatens to divulge a secret, their happiness subsides.

While the story is also about the coming of age, it is also a touching testament to the early immigrant spirit and the hardships of life

Odd runs away to his old house, only to encounter Norse gods in the form of a bear (Thor), an eagle (Odin) and a fox (Loki) outsmarted by the frost giants

Decades after being liberated, the world treats the survivors differently. The perspective is not only that of the survivors themselves, but also of society

Even operations that seem mundane, such as smuggling out of the Soviet Union of Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech gets an air of reverence and complexity

A discovery of a new version of the biblical “Genesis”, with the proof of extraterrestrial life these discoveries threaten Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Far from Zion is a non-fiction account of the author’s search for his identity. In his search Mr. London goes far and wide looking for Jews in diaspora.

Mr. Boyd tells of human drama, fools, criminals, patsies & losers living on the edges of society. For every loser there’s a person who is above and below them

There are many details about the book which are fascinating, the Bolshoi Ballet, the tryouts, dancing, the life of a ballerina, life in post WWII Russia