Random Acts of Heroic Love

 

Random Acts of Heroic Love, Copyright 2007, by Danny Sheinmann

Random Acts tells two parallel stories, one of a contemporary man named Leo who loses his girlfriend Eleni in a bus crash in South America, and the other set during WWI and of a man named Moritz whose love for his girl keeps him alive during the war.

I found this book on line while conducting research on my great grandfather Paul Milec’s story. Both Paul and Danny’s grandfather, Moshe Scheinmann, fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army, both were captured by the Russians and spent years as POWs in Siberia.  And both ultimately walked home across Siberia. Also, neither Danny or I really know many details of their experiences in the war or of the circumstances of their long walks.

Their stories are a little different. Moritz  is Jewish, and is fighting on the side of the Austro-Hungarians. Paul, on the other hand, who was drafted to the same Army, quickly surrendered to the Russians, as the Czechs and Slovaks felt more affinity to the Russians than they did to the Hungarians who ruled them in their empire.  Paul ultimately joined the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, and was riding the trains in the trans-Siberian Railway and walking home across the same landscape at the same time Moshe was walking home.  Who knows, perhaps they crossed paths?!

The story of Leo is a true story. Danny apparently lost his girlfriend in a similar way to Leo, and you can tell as the first opening chapter is very vividly written.