My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov

FINALIST, Red Cedar Nonfiction Award

Based on extensive interviews, My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov is a first-person biography of a Jewish teenager who had it all on the hockey rink: guts, drive, and exceptional talent. When a freak accident leaves him with a permanent disability and no feeling below his left knee, everyone believes Eliezer's career is over - everyone except his mother, a professional power skating coach. She teaches Eliezer to skate using the muscles in his upper leg, and after two and a half years of operations and rehabilitation, he returns to the rink to become one of Quebec's elite junior players.

Still undrafted at age nineteen, Eliezer embarks on a professional career in Europe in the hopes of one day returning to the NHL. His travels lead him to France, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, and to Poland, where he lives and plays hockey just a few kilometres from the Auschwitz death camp, haunted by memories of the past.

In its stunning conclusion, My Left Skate describes Eliezer's life in Ukraine and his struggle to escape from war after Russia invades the very region in which he plays.

"Eliezer Sherbatov scores a hat trick with My Left Skate. This story is wonderfully told: gritty, inspiring, joyful at times and sad at other moments. He deserves to be a hockey hero for all that he has survived." - Marty Klinkenberg, The Globe and Mail