The Penny is Gone: A Soviet Jew's Meditations on the Jewish Question

Not to dream, not to be able, not to be. This is the reality of Jewish life in 20th-century Russia. The Penny is Gone is a lyrical and brutal account of Jewish life under the institutionalized antisemitism of the Soviet Union.

In the middle of an illustrious career at a classified military research institute, Emil is callously dismissed without cause. Insinuation, family ties, and whispers of Israel may have been just what the authorities needed to exercise their intolerance of Russian Jews...