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Michael Chaban

In December 2006 the Odessa Publisher House “Optimum” published a book entitled “Odessa and Canadian Mantsi”. Its author is the former Odessa and now Toronto resident Michael Chaban. The word “Mantsi” is hard to translate to English due to its Odessa’s specific flavor. It means a half truthful and half untruthful fanny story. The book consists of two parts (more then 300 pages) and includes a lot of pictures and friendly and unfriendly caricatures. The first part includes the Odessaian funny stories that are told by six different Odessa’s personages such as Ellochka Tushis, the Aunt Dvoira and others. They humorously describe various aspects of their life in Odessa and Canada. The second part consists of Canadian stories that describe the author’s experience regarding immigration to Canada and the following job search in this country. The writer is a well known hydrogeologist, a holder of a PhD degree in the field of hydrogeology. In Russia he published 10 monographs and more than 100 articles on various hydrogeological topics. He also published several articles in English in the Ground Water Canada and American Water Well journals. This book is his literary debut.