“This captivating novel is exactly what has been missing from so much ‘Holocaust fiction.’ Batalion gives these extraordinary women…full and profound and contradictory and vibrant worlds…. I loved these brilliant women.” —Dara Horn, author of People Love Dead Jews
“’The Last Woman of Warsaw’ is a sparkling tale of courage.” —Woman’s World
From the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of “The Light of Days,” a debut novel about that follows two very different and audacious Jewish women in 1938 Warsaw as they unexpectedly come together in their search for love, meaning and a sense of home, and as they grapple with the storm clouds gathering around them.
Fanny Zelshinsky is a sophisticated, modern daughter of the city’s Jewish elite who wants nothing more than to be recognized as a legitimate artist by her family, her radical professor whom she idolizes and the world at large. Zosia Dror has left behind her small northeastern shtetl and religious family in the wake of violence. Part of a budding youth movement that believes in social equality and creating a Jewish homeland, all she wants is to not get distracted by the glitz and hubbub of the city—or by the keen eyes of a certain tall, handsome comrade.
When a member of Zosia’s movement leadership (also Fanny’s beloved photography professor) goes missing, the two young women are thrown together in the pursuit of the elusive firebrand. Is she simply in hiding? Or, is her disappearance connected to the rise in antisemitic laws and university practices? Unlikely allies, they must bridge their differences to help someone they both care for–and dodge the danger mounting in the politically charged Polish capital in the late 1930s.
Author reception, book sales + signing after the event.
In partnership with Jewish Book Council.
Part of Chew on This! Speaker Series theme: Blueprint for Belonging.
ABOUT:
Judy Batalion is the author of several books of award-winning nonfiction, most recently the New York Times bestseller, “The Light of Days.” Her writing has appeared in “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post,” “Vogue,” “The Forward,” “Salon” and “The Jerusalem Post.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Batalion grew up speaking English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew. After studying the history of science at Harvard University, she moved to London to pursue a Ph.D. in art history. In 2007, while doing research at the British Library she happened across a dusty, old Yiddish book, “Freuen in di Ghettos” (“Women in the Ghettos”), a Yiddish thriller about “ghetto girls” who hid revolvers in teddy bears and blew up German supply trains—the inspiration for “The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos” (2021), which won a National Jewish Book Award and a Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was adapted into an award-winning children’s book, translated into 23 languages and has been optioned by Steven Spielberg’s Partners for whom Batalion co-wrote the screenplay. While working on the “The Light of Days,” Batalion grew fascinated by these audacious, stylish young Jewish women, which evolving into this debut novel.
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