First published 2026
Molly Crabapple finds herself drawn into the world of her great-grandfather Sam Rothbort's paintings, created decades after the Holocaust to preserve memories of his shtetl childhood. One image captivates her: a young woman in a sky-blue dress throwing stones through a cottage window. This figure, Itka the Bundist, becomes Crabapple's gateway into the forgotten universe of the Jewish Labor Bund, the most powerful Jewish political movement in eastern Europe before World War II. The Bundists rejected Zionism and religion alike, fighting instead for dignity and equality in their homeland of eastern Europe. Through portraits of rebel poets, underground revolutionaries, and lovers caught in political upheaval, Crabapple reconstructs their world of secular socialism and unwavering solidarity. As the Russian Revolution unfolds and the Holocaust approaches, the Bundists maintain their conviction that liberation must begin where people already live. Their stories of moral clarity and imagination offer guidance for contemporary struggles with nationalism and belonging.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, art-history, activism, cultural-studies, jewish
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: belonging, moral-clarity, nationalism
Setting: Eastern Europe, Shtetl
Period: Holocaust, Russian Revolution
480 pages · Hardcover · One World