Two Ceramic Horses On A Cracked Base A Family Memoir by Henry Michael Strage
Praise For Two Ceramic Horses
“Beautifully written, this memoir brings the author and his forbears alive more than any traditional chronology. These memories paint the period and setting so vividly that they transport the reader back in time’’
- Dr. Susan Furhrman, President Teachers College, Columbia University
“This family saga is a unique tale spanning three centuries and stretching from Russia to Harbin, China to Belgium to New York and finally London. From his Russian Jewish ancestors to his growing up in New York’s Upper West Side and his five decades in London, Henry recounts with great emotion, humor and nostalgia his truly remarkable journey’’
- Ambassador Moshe Raviv, Former Israeli Ambassador to Great Britain
The Story
In 1839, after Czar Nicholas sanctioned the kidnapping of Jewish children as young as eight to serve in his Imperial Army for twenty-five years, the author's paternal great-grandfather was forcibly abducted, never to see his family again. On his mother’s side, more than three decades of devastating pogroms throughout Russia compelled eleven of his uncles and aunts to flee Russia. In 1926 his father, escaping from the Russian secret police, met his mother on a two-week Trans-Siberian Express train, fell in love with her, and settled in Manzhouli, a remote village in Outer Mongolia.
After Japan invaded and occupied the area, the family fled again; this time to the relative peace of Belgium. But their peace was short-lived. German storm troopers marched into Poland in 1939. Once again, this time with false Lithuanian identity papers, the family escaped Hitler's Anschluss to the safety of United States only to have an unscrupulous business partner steal his father's entire life savings.
About Henry Strage
After thirty years with McKinsey & Company in their London office, Henry Strage has dedicated his time and boundless energy to a variety of not-for-profit global institutions, including the International Disability Foundation, two American universities, and has served as a visiting professor at several Advanced Management programs around the world. His few spare moments are devoted to writing. Milestones in Management, An Essential Reader (1992, Blackwell Publishers) was followed by Why Manchester? a two-act historical drama produced in London. The second volume of his autobiography and a book of poetry are in the work-in-progress drawer.