Phoenix follows the history of a Jewish family from the early 19th century to the beginning of the 3rd Millennium, from rural Hungary to Budapest and beyond. Previous generations of our family dreamed of moving to the Unites States to ensure freedom and opportunity for future generations. They tried and failed. They endured near decimation in the Holocaust. And then the family rose from the ashes like a Phoenix, survived life behind The Iron Curtain, and two generations after the first attempt, was finally able to settle in the United States.

Phoenix also describes the author's scientific career from his early years in Hungary to his most formative years at the Space Research Institute in Moscow where he worked with the best space physicists of the Soviet Union. As a young scientist he also played a role as an intermediary between the leadership of the Soviet planetary research program and the West, a role that led to some memorable events. He played leading roles in the international VEGA mission to comet Halley and in the Cassini mission to the Saturn system.

Tamas Gombosi is an accomplished space scientist, author of two textbooks and numerous scientific publications. This is his first non-science book.