Transylvanian Roots: The True Life Adventures of a Hungarian American

'It was the 18th of November 1956. The Hungarian Nation was on general strike against the Soviet invaders and their puppet Hungarian government, which had been organized on Soviet soil and sent to 'pacify' the Nation..."

So begins Michael Kosztarab's story of his life -- a record of adventures and narrow escapes, of hard work, perseverance, ingenuity, and scientific endeavor that have taken him to every continent except Antarctica, where he has met people from all walks of life and observed the natural world.

The book is graced with illustrations and photographs, and with his humor and this thoughtful discussion of political, educational, and common-sense matters.

A native of Transylvania, Kosztarab was born in Bucharest, studied in Hungary (B.S.) and the United States (Ph.D.). He has authored or co-authored 165 publications, including a number of research bulletins and four books. For his scientific work, he has received numerous awards and recognitions from four countries.

He came to the United States in 1957 after the lost Hungarian Revolution. This book recounts his two escapes from the Soviets, the smuggling of his seven-month-old daughter out of Communist Hungary, his incarceration by the Nazis for helping Jews in 1944, and his welcome to the United States as not just a refugee but a scholar/scientist.

He describes a number of trips across the United States and back to Transylvania, and other trips to such exotic countries as Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Israel. his twice-around-the-world journeys offer a valuable experience in ethnography as well as nature conservation and natural history.

This traveler, raconteur, and family man is also, and mainly, a teacher who has received awards and recognition for his teaching skills from the two universities where he has spent his teaching career.

Now retired from Virginia Tech's Entomology Department, Kosztarab and his wife live in Blacksburg, Virginia, when they are not traveling. Their daughter Eva, the smuggled baby, lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with her husband and two sons, and has her own law office in Fairfax, Virginia.