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 little siblings alive, smuggling them out of Soviet Russia, and reuniting the family in America. All of which he did, and, as he would be the first to tell you, nobody even thanked him! This is the story of Yankel (a. k. a. Jacob G. Carton, a. k. a. Jack): refugee, immigrant, charmer, reluctant capitalist, and satirical observer of both the Old World and the New. It's also a story about family rivalry and family loyalty, a story about what changes and what doesn't change when you have to leave one life for another, a story about the 20th century and about America.