(Fiction, 432 pp., 2019)
In the late nineteenth century, Argentina offered an escape from poverty, pogroms, and the Pale — and held a disturbing secret. Talia Carner’s deeply researched novel reveals Russian Jews’ degradation under tsarist antisemitism and their desperation to ensure their children’s survival. When Batya’s father leaps at the opportunity to marry her to a rich, well-spoken stranger, the expectation of passage to an easy life in South America ends at a brothel’s door. She becomes one of thousands of Jewish young women trafficked through Argentina’s brutal prostitution underworld. The risk of escape is fraught with menace, including the ancillary dangers for her family back in Russia, but it is Batya’s only hope.
Discussion questions from the author’s website
Historical background of the novel from the author’s website
Q&A from Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
Jewish Book Council review by Sonia Taitz, Sept. 9, 2019
Review by Missi Gwartney in The Gloss
Review by Megan in Literary Quicksand
Author interview with Book marketing Buzz Blog
Podcast author interview with Association of Jewish Libraries, Nice Jewish Books
Podcast author interview with Nikki Leigh, Ready For Love Radio
Podcast author interview with Jeff Rutherford, Reading and Writing Podcast, Episode 258
Yiddish songs about sex trafficking of Jews in Buenos Aires, credited to Jeanette Lewicki
