The author tells the story of the first part of his own life as best he remembers it. The setting is a small village north-east of Krivoy Rog, on the rolling plains of the Ukraine. Born in 1931, the boy entered this world during a period of stress: economic depression, collectivization of farm lands, establishing communist power, being Mennonite in a predominantly Russo-Ukrainian society. Beyond the initial setting, the story is centred on major...