Alva Review-Courier -

This story is about a man named Henry Roth. He was born on Feb. 8, 1906, in a small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire that is now known as Tysmenytsia, Ukraine.

Henry’s given name at birth was Herschel, but the family Americanized it to Henry when they immigrated to the United States in 1907 or early 1908.

Henry and his parents were Jewish, and they settled in a poor, predominantly Jewish neighborhood in New York City. In March 1908, Henry’s little sister Rose was born there. Her birth completed the family – the Roths had no other children.

Henry’s parents had a tumultuous relationship. His...