Threadbare, a prequel to In the Hands of Women, is a historical novel written as a tribute to Jane Rubin’s great-grandmother, Mathilda, who died from a ‘woman’s disease’ in the early years of the twentieth century. It explores the late Victorian era through a Jewish character living among the poor and the emerging middle class.
Threadbare recounts the story of an innocent but tenacious young girl who chooses at sixteen, to marry Abe, a lonely widower, rather than follow her farming community north as urban development transforms rural Harlem. Convinced Abe will help her attend high school on the Lower East Side, she faces a rude awakening to the filth and disease of the tenements. Through the following decade, Tillie turns her energy and intelligence to partnering with Abe as he builds a thriving button business while she and her neighbor Sadie launch a unique garment company. Pushing back against antisemitic and the Victorian misogynistic values dominating the time, they acquire wealth only to have life upended by the challenge of their life.
Fiction
Threadbare
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2023
Discussion Questions
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