Helpful Score: 2
This slim memoir packs a whollop. Born the granndson of a Spanish Communist leader, he spent his childhood as an orphan being shuttled between a variety of children's and old age homes in Russia. His mother, a student, thought that he had died. How Ruben survived such a childhood of cruelty and neglect and deprivation is incredible. Born with cerebral palsy, he crawls his way outside and to the bathroom. He can only use a few fingers of one hand, yet he grows up, marries, has children and finally reunites with his mother. Incredibly moving.
