The inspiring story of a penniless wartime refugee's rise to prominence in Canada's business and cultural worlds

Petro (Peter) Jacyk survived two of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century: the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, instigated by Stalin and responsible for the deaths of untold millions and waves of invasion and slaughter from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Fleeing post-war Europe in 1949, he arrived in Canada with $7 in his pocket and horrific images in his memory.

His adopted country would inspire a deep and life-long love in Jacyk. Here at last, as he put it, he was “free to live and free to succeed.? Through the Toronto building and land development firm he founded, he established himself as an economic and cultural powerhouse. Exacting in his dealings with others, yet a generous mentor, he sought excellence in all of his pursuits.

In time, the man who had begun as a “poor-penny immigrant? became one of the country's most prominent philanthropists. Jacyk donated substantial portions of his wealth to projects dedicated to Ukrainian history, language, and culture. Universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Toronto benefited from his largesse. The programs Jacyk sponsored in Ukraine, and the enormous energy he devoted to them, earned him his homeland's highest award of distinction.

Leaving Home celebrates the life of a remarkable man determined to make a positive impact on an often hostile world.

John Lawrence Reynolds has had thirty works of fiction and nonfiction published. His work has earned two Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Mystery Novel, a National Business Book Award, and a CBC Bookie Award. His bestselling book Shadow People, tracing the development and influence of secret societies through history, was published in fourteen countries and twelve languages. He has also authored several business and investment books, including the bestselling The Naked Investor and its sequel, The Skeptical Investor, as well as his assessment of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Bubbles, Bankers & Bailouts. A Murder for Max is his first book in the Maxine Benson Mystery series. He lives in Burlington, Ontario, with his wife, Judy. For more information, visit www.wryter.ca.

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For One Hell of a Ride:

-This book should have been called 'One Hell of a Read', National Post For Shadow People:

-For those searching for an entertaining book (and Reynolds is a funny man with a delicious turn of phrase), this is a must-read." -- The Globe and Mail