The Boston Girl

The Boston Girl – Anita Diamant

In 1985, eighty-five-year-old Addie Baum is asked by her granddaughter, Ava, how she became the woman she is today. In response, Addie begins to tell the story of her life, beginning in 1915, when she was fifteen years old and growing up in Boston as the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia.

The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant, author of the bestselling The Red Tent, follows Addie as she comes of age in a crowded tenement in the city’s North End. Her parents, rooted in the traditions of the old country, struggle to understand their daughters and the opportunities of their new home. Addie, bright and curious, longs for education and independence, and finds a world beyond her family through a club for young women at a local settlement house.

Through Addie’s eyes, readers experience the changes of the early twentieth century: the First World War, the influenza epidemic, the struggle for women’s rights, changing ideas about work, love and marriage, and new opportunities for women. Addie forms lifelong friendships, experiences heartbreak and loss, finds work and love, and gradually discovers who she wants to be.

Told in a warm, witty and conversational voice, the novel captures both the hardships and the joys of a woman’s life across a century of change.

Charming and moving, The Boston Girl is a wonderful choice for readers of historical fiction and book clubs, and for anyone who loves stories about family, friendship and the strength of women.