From Saratov to San Francisco

It is 1878 and from a little town on the banks of Russia’s Volga River, a penniless Jewish youth sets out for America. He has two strikes against him. One is that, being dyslexic, he can neither read nor write. And the other is that the steamship ticket to take him to his cousin in New York, instead deposits him on the quay of a little port on the Buffalo River in South Africa, where he knows no one.

Compensating for his handicap with a phenomenal memory, through hard work and dogged determination, Maimon Sokolovski finds, and then loses, and then finds again, the love of his life. Together they endure personal tragedies and moments of undreamed-of happiness, traverse the high and low roads, and embark on an adventure with their family that will encompass the world – and change more than a few lives.

Entrusted by President Kruger to industrialize the Transvaal Republic, and capitalizing on his relationship with Rand Lords Alfred Beit and Julius Werner, Maimon carves out a niche across a wide spectrum of South African society. From hosting a private dinner for Jan Smuts, Barry Hertzog, and Albert Luthuli, to being lent a fully crewed South African Airforce DC4 airplane for a weeklong humanitarian mission, Maimon shapes the history of his country and strides many paths, all the while retaining the common touch and never forgetting how difficult it is at the foot of life’s mountain.

This stirring saga, full of humor, drama, novelistic depictions of actual historical events, and unforgettable characters, is unlike any other.