From the beloved author of Comeback Love and Wherever There Is Light, comes tale about the life-changing journey of a young man who travels from New Jersey to Khrushchev's Russia and the beaches of Southern France to discover long-hidden secrets about his heritage.
In 1950s New Jersey, teacher Michael Daniels-or Misha Danielov to his doting Russian-Jewish grandmother-is at loose ends, until he becomes the host of a nightly underground radio show. Not only does the show become a local hit because of his running satires of USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev, but half a world away, it picks up listeners in a small Soviet city.
There, with rock and roll leaking in through bootlegged airwaves, Yulianna Kosoy-a war orphan in her mid-twenties-is sneaking American goods into the country with her boss, Der Schmuggler.
But just as Michael's radio show is taking off, his grandmother is murdered. Why would anyone commit such an atrocity against such a warm, affable woman? She had always been secretive about her past and, as Michael discovers, guarded a shadowy ancestral history. In order to solve the mystery of who killed her, Michael sets out for Europe to learn where he-and his grandmother-really came from.
