My name a living memory

the long version

"Spanning six generations and three continents, My Name, a Living Memory is a novel based on theoretic saga of author Giorgio van Straten's family from the Napoleonic era through World War II. The story begins in Rotterdam in 1811, when Hartog son of Alexander - father, cucumber salesman, and Dutch Jew - is forced by Napoleonic edict to choose a last name. He chooses Straaten, the Dutch word for "street."" "The name presages a journey through history that flings Hartog's descendants as far afield as San Francisco, London, Odessa, Sao Paolo, and Tbilisi. They witness the Gold Rush, the Russian Revolution, the Stalinist purges, and, finally the Holocaust. Some are uprooted by business interests, including the author's grandfather, who moved to Genoa in 1913, losing one of the A's in his surname along the way."--Jacket.