In 1931, under the cloud of the Great Depression, twenty-one-year-old Birdie, a Jewish New Yorker, loses her job at Macy's. Disenchanted with the American way, her growing belief in the Soviet system drives her to travel to Russia, where she has a romance with a writer who is denounced and sent to Siberia-but not before she becomes pregnant with his child.
In her attempts to free him, Birdie is aided by an American journalist, whom she eventually marries. Just before World War II, Birdie returns to the United States with her husband and daughter.
In moving back to America, Birdie is not turning her back on her socialist ideals, however. Still pro-Soviet, along with many of her family and friends, Birdie finds life during the Cold War to be extremely difficult, and her marriage turns out to be burdensome as well. Yet through it all, her spirit for social change remains undiminished.
A fascinating exploration of a world that is not as black and white as is often portrayed, Comes the Revolution is author Karl Rodman's fictionalized biography of his aunt-a strong, determined woman who worked hard for what she believed, living and loving with equal passion.
About the Author: Karl Rodman is a retired educator who now lives with his wife on Sanibel Island, Florida, where they raise chickens and he remains active in the local historical museum. Throughout his extensive teaching career, he taught all grades, from kindergarten through college. And for a time, he and his wife also directed a children's summer camp, as well as a neighborhood school-an experience he describes in his book A School Named for Thoreau.
Rodman eventually went on to run a tour company that guided American teachers through the USSR. He went back to school, earning an EdD in Soviet studies, which enabled him to offer the tours as credit-bearing courses.
Rodman's novel Comes the Revolution, a fascinating fictionalized biography of his aunt, draws from his family history, academic studies, and the more than thirty trips he led to the USSR.
