The Boy in the Barrel: Based on the true story of a boy who lost his childhood and found himself

A lost boy. A fractured family. A continent that will test them all. 
Vilna, 1889. Eight-year-old Izzy Lieberman leaves his snow-covered homeland with only his father, escaping the pogroms and bound for a new life at the edge of the world - Cape Town, South Africa. But amid the chaos of the port, as tensions rise in the days before the Anglo-Boer War, Izzy’s father vanishes. In the confusion, Izzy is left behind - forgotten, frightened, and convinced he has been farfolen - thrown away. 
Alone on the harsh streets of Cape Town, Izzy learns to survive among the city’s homeless boys who become his only family. Years later, drawn north to the diamond diggings of Kimberley, he toils under the blazing African sun with them, unearthing both fortune and sorrow. 
Eleven years after his disappearance, the once-abandoned boy arrives in Johannesburg a man - scarred by hardship, hardened by survival - and comes face-to-face with the family he thought he had lost forever. And as Izzy stands on the threshold of a new life, he finally understands that even those who are lost can find their way home. 
The Boy in the Barrel is a sweeping historical journey from Eastern Europe to the raw, restless soul of Africa - a story of survival, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bonds of family.