A Forgotten Land tells the story of one Jewish family, and their lives in the Russian Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The book is set against a backdrop of the pogroms, WW1, the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Weaving together history and personal tragedy, the book tells the story of the author's grandmother Pearl, whose comfortable family life is horrifically altered, firstly by her own mother's untimely death, and later by the Bolshevik Revolution and all its outcomes.
Both the Tzarist and Communist armies attempt to destroy Pearl's hometown, slaughtering Jews as they go. As a teenager, Pearl is forced to keep her family from the brink of poverty by becoming the primary breadwinner. She risks her own life to support the family she loves.
After becoming a black market gold dealer she can finally take it no more and escapes, leaving the family and home that she loves forever.