Singer's account is a retrospective in vivid images that capture the life of Abraham's people in the land of the Soviets after the end of the Civil War. The journey begins in Moscow, with its "vast, huge, truly Russian and fabulously beautiful Red Square," and in Minsk, "supposedly a cheerful and lively city. It has retained the charm of the Lithuanian-Jewish border towns" and continues on roads through the countryside, where there are "no trees, no bushes, just steppe and more steppe"; to Kharkiv, "hard, industrial and unattractive"; to Kyiv, "in this absurd city I spent the bitterest and perhaps also the most beautiful days of my life"; and to the most remote places in the Crimea, which are "bathed in light and flowers".

I traveled to Israel some years ago and saw Banksy’s murals in Bethlehem, on the Israeli-West Bank barrier. Magnificent murals that were screaming the decades-old pain of Palestinians. The paintings reminded me of Belfast in the 1990s. Scenes of bomb explosions, arrests, weapons, and the sorrow that follows loss were made even more striking by vibrant colors. A visual language as old as Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans evolved to express Palestinians’ hate towards injustice.

Humans sing in groups since they started gathering around the fire at night, chasing away obscure enemies back in the woods. That is, since the beginning of time. Choirs accompany rituals and festivals as they used to thousands of years ago. Singing is essential in every culture. The chorus is found in Greek theater, the Iliad, the synagogues of ancient Israel, and among the Pygmies, whose highest cultural exhibition it represents.

In Italy, there are around 144 native, often ancient grape varieties from which countless good and excellent wines are made, either purely varietal or by blending several types of grapes (Bordeaux style). As early as the Greek and Roman age, wine was consumed at Bacchanalia, with the result that the consequent euphoria led men and women to uncontrolled sexual conduct and cruel ritual murders for several days. Those rites celebrated Dionysus, the god of lifeblood, the primordial element of the cosmos, the frenetic current of life that pervades everything. Dionysus embodies the primordial, instinctive spark that is present in every living being.