National Network for Equitable Library Service

A revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister and a wholly different account of the founding of the United States.

How does life begin? What does it mean? What happens when we die? “All anyone can do is ask,” Lepore writes.

Rachel is a Jew living in Kishinev, Russia. At fourteen, she has dreams of being a writer.

It is 1904, and Rachel and her family are leaving Russia to escape the continuing riots against Jews. They take the Trans-Siberian Railway across the country and board a ship to Shanghai.

Rachel, a young Jewish woman from a small town in Russia, has made an incredible journey.