I certainly wouldn’t want to share my name with a famous movie character. Lately I’ve heard the tale of not just the movie Harry Potter, but two real life Harry Potter’s.
Two weeks ago I heard that a Brantford, Ontario Harry Potter was besieged with calls about the new Harry Potter book and movie and now I’ve just read about a 78 year old Florida man who’s name happens to be Harry Potter. He too has been getting calls from children every time a new book in the wildly popular series comes out.
“The kids want to know if I’m Harry Potter,” he said. “I tell them I’ve been Harry Potter for darn near 80 years!”
I enjoy reading a good book, one full of mystery, intrigue, spys etc, but most often these books are works of fiction. I’ve just discovered a book that seems to have all of the features I enjoy in a good read, but it’s a true story.
The book is called Defiance, and it’s a true story written by a man named Alex Konanykhin. The story as told by Konanykhin talks about how, by the age of 25, he had created and controlled one of the largest banks in Russia. He became a self made tycoon as a result. Unfortunately this caused him a lot of trouble- perhaps more trouble than it was worth?
The KGB kidnapped him and stole the fortune he’d worked so hard to create. Alex Konanykhin made a daring escape in 1992 and moved to the USA. You’d think that other than not having his wealth anymore that his troubles would be over and that he’d be safe once he got out of Russia wouldn’t you? Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Nope. He ended up having to fight the INS, the Justice department and the FBI in order to maintain his freedom and his life because they wanted to deport him back to Russia which would more than likely have meant certain death for Alex. Even the Russian mafia got into the act and took out a contract on his life.
Defiance is a personal memoir written by Alex Konanykhin about what has happened in his life in the last eventful 14 years. On the Book Website you can look at photos, documents and read deleted chapters in order to get a better idea of what Alex has gone through so far. This sounds like my kind of novel. I can’t wait to read it.
