Narrated in the tradition of Tolstoy's confessional trilogy and Nabokov's autobiog­raphy, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story is a searing account of growing up a Jewish refusenik, of a young poet's rebellion against totalitarian culture, and of Soviet fantasies of the West during the Cold War. Shrayer's remembrances ore set against a rich backdrop of politics, travel, and ethnic conflict on the brink of the Soviet empire's collapse. His moving story offers generous doses of humor and tenderness, counterbalanced with longing and violence. In this book, Shrayer describes an emotional journey-not just from Russia to America, but from spiritual darkness into light. The book also explains why Jews felt forced to leave a country they loved, when it grew clear that country would never, could never, love them in return. ― Wyatt Andrews, CBS News national correspondent Born in Moscow in 1967 in a writer's family, Maxim D. Shrayer is a professor at Boston College and a bilingual writer and translator. Shrayer has authored over ten books, among them, the memoir Waiting for America , the story collection Yam Kippur in Amsterdam , and the Holocaust study I Saw It . Shrayer's Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature won a 2007 National Jewish Book Award, and in 2012, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and two daughters. Visit Shrayer's website at www.shrayer.com.