Alex was born on a rural estate in the Ural Mountains, on the wrong side of violent social upheaval. Left virtually orphaned and homeless, he became an outcast in the village that had been home to many generations of his family. Just ten years old, Alex fled with his brother Genya across Siberia to Vladivostok where they lived as street children in constant danger. Attempting to rendezvous with border guides who had only a photograph to recognise them, the brothers were tragically separated. It was many years later - after further adventures and cataclysmic events - that Alex finally found sanctuary in his new homeland, Australia.