Like piecing together a complex mosaic from tiny colored tiles, author Albert Edelson sets out to piece together his memories with the sociological, historical, and political factors contributing to the world as he witnessed it in order to create a complete record of his seventy years. In this memoir and history, set in the form of a ship's logbook, he recalls the events of the emotional and geographical journeys that characterized his life. Edelson was set afloat on the torrential river of life in a very dark time. Born to Jewish parents in Belgium in 1941, Edelson survived the annihilation of the Jewish population of Belgium by being separated from his parents and hidden away as an orphan in a Catholic convent. It wasn't until five years after the end of the war that Edelson was reunited with his mother and father. After integrating back into his biological family, Edelson embarked on a series of adventures that took him all over world and exposed him to many different civilizations and sociopolitical frameworks. This intriguing history shares one man's unique journey in short but detailed installments, each a tile in the great mosaic of life.