Yankel Krutiansky was supposed to go with his father to America in 1913. Instead, his brother was chosen and twelve-year-old Yankel was left behind in the collapsing Russian Empire. It was supposed to be just for a few months, but it turned out to be eight long years. Eight years of war, revolution, poverty, and murderous anti-Jewish pogroms. Eight years in which Yankel—the family clown, the family bad boy, and the oldest son left at home—was responsible for keeping his mother and four lit...