How do you know what isn't there, what you've never experienced? It would be like trying to understand a third dimension when you're living in a two-dimensional world. That's why I wasn't aware of the absence of insects around me until I experienced their abundance in Africa. I also didn't know what was amiss during my childhood in Israel, Germany, and various parts of the US, but I felt something wasn't right in my family and knew I had to get away. Determined to experience life fully, I hitchhiked through a dozen sub-Saharan African countries and lived in other parts of the world. It was only decades later, after I uncovered the hidden history of my family and put the pieces together, that I realized how historical traumas had warped my parents' realities. At last I understood the burden that my brother and I had inherited. Now my struggles to free myself and choose a healthier existence finally made sense. I started out writing a collection of glimpses, then saw the patterns running throughout and realized that the whole story had to be told. The result is this sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious book.