Songa's Story

Chronicling the life of Leon Ajces, known always as "Songa," Natalie Green Giles unfolds the story of one man's journey through extraordinary times. It is a story that takes us from the quiet grain fields of Songa's idyllic childhood in a "shtetl," or Jewish village in Ukraine, through Soviet and Nazi occupation, the bloodiest battles of World War II, postwar rebuilding, and the oppressive expansion of Communism across Eastern Europe. It is a story with an unlikely ending, in America, where Songa is allowed to transform himself--from a Soviet military intelligence officer, to a loyal patriot, and an enormously successful businessman in his adopted country.