On the night of November 6th, 1941, the life of Isaac Gochman, a 16-year-old Polish Jew, changes tragically and profoundly. Over 20,000 Jews from Rovno, Poland, are marched into the Sosenki Forest by the Nazis, stripped and shot to death, then buried in an endless, unmarked ravine. All of Isaac's family and friends die in the massacre. But Isaac miraculously survives the slaughter, and so begins his incredible and harrowing journey through the Polish forest, facing unimaginable hardships and the constant threat of death from the Nazis and their sympathizers.
To save himself, he adopts a new identity, Sergei, a Russian Christian, and joins the Russian Partisan Brigade, to become a demolition "miracle man." As a Partisan, he falls passionately in love for the first time in his young life with Ducia, a Russian nurse.
Near the end of the war, he turns his back on his homeland, heroically saves the lives of American soldiers, and finds a new home in America.
Isaac is a true coming-of-age story of miraculous survival, courage, and love.
