![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tales-of-a-grandfather.jpg\")
(Book cover courtesy of David Lyalin)<\/p>\n(Book cover courtesy of David Lyalin)<\/p>\n
David Lyalin, a longtime Dunwoody resident and immigrant from the former Soviet Union, has compiled his family stories into a book to educate and inspire future generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTales of a Grandfather Who Once Upon a Time Was a Grandson Himself,\u201d written in both Russian and English, is a collection of family stories, published by Sandermoen Publishing in Switzerland. Lyalin, who works as an industrial engineer specialist at the CDC, is a first-time author.<\/p>\n
\u201cI originally wrote it for my grandchildren \u2013 but the project grew into something much larger: a way to preserve family memory across languages, continents, and generations,\u201d Lyalin said. \u201cThe stories span the Russian Empire and Soviet history, immigration, family loss and love, and the connections that survive across time and place\u2014told with warmth, humor, and reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyalin said his desire to compile his family\u2019s memories emerged during the pandemic, when his daughter and other relatives were scattered across the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cI found myself wanting to share with them stories, not just bedtime tales, but something deeper: the kind of stories that connect us to the past, to each other, and to the generations we never knew,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I began writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stories were written in Russian at first because it was the language of Lyalin\u2019s childhood, his parents and grandparents. But since his grandchildren don\u2019t speak Russian, he wanted to translate the tales so they could share in their family history. It took him a year to complete. <\/p>\n
\u201cTranslating my own stories from Russian to English was harder than writing them in the first place,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a line from Russian poetry: \u2018To tears, to veins, to childhood\u2019s swollen glands\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s how deeply a native language lives in us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stories are not only personal in nature, but they are also historical, not in a textbook form, but history \u201ctold in kitchens and tramcars, playgrounds and hospital rooms,\u201d Lyalin said. \u201cIn them are the small, living truths of what it meant to be a Jew in the Soviet Union \u2013 what it meant to leave, what it means to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Lyalin, born in Leningrad, immigrated to the United States in 1990 as part of a Jewish refugee program, along with his wife and nine-year-old daughter. He said the lack of religious and political freedom in Russia drove him from his native country.<\/p>\n
He said his now-92-year-old mother was a source of inspiration and information for the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe remembers a lot of things from the past that I never knew,\u201d Lyalin said. \u201cAlthough the book is dedicated to my grandchildren, I wrote it in large part for my mother. Because this book \u2013 and every story in it \u2013 means infinitely more to her than to anyone else, simply because they were written by me, her son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyalin said his mother was on his mind during the entire writing and editing process.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe, with the endless patience of an old school teacher, listened to me read the drafts over the phone and, as always, firmly and wisely guided me in the right direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lyalin said his book has resonated with both his Russian family and his American friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo my surprise, the book has found resonance not only within my family, but far beyond it. Russian-speaking readers have told me it reminds them of people and moments they had forgotten,\u201d he said. \u201cEnglish-speaking readers have said it opened a window to a world they had only heard about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyalin\u2019s book, \u201cTales of a Grandfather\u201d is available in paperback and as an e-book through Sandermoen Publishing<\/a>. A short video Lyalin produced about the book<\/a> can be found on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Book cover courtesy of David Lyalin) David Lyalin, a longtime Dunwoody resident and immigrant from the former Soviet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[412,1146,60691,60692,146,29982,85,46,60693,60694],"class_list":{"0":"post-89154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-cdc","10":"tag-david-lyalin","11":"tag-dunwoody","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-former-soviet-union","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-leningrad","17":"tag-sandermoen-publishing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}