Why would a married woman during the Depression not want a child? How are her issues different from an unmarried woman? Starting from there, the novel began to take shape.

She keeps her pregnancy secret from her daughter. It evokes the struggles faced by a Russian Jewish mother, Rose, and her daughter, Dottie who both find themselves pregnant at the same time. The result is a thought-provoking tale of parents and children and the sacrifices they make for one another. Working Mother Brown pens the story of a Jewish immigrant mother and unmarried daughter, both pregnant and neither planning on it, in 1930s New York City. They thought it was because of that botched abortion, but I’m pretty sure abortions don’t cause cancer.” I started turning the idea over in my mind, playing with it. MODERN GIRLS is a novel that takes place in New York City in the 1930's. Modern Girls is a well-researched and thought-provoking debut novel. I asked my father for our family’s medical history, and I was shocked when he told me, “My grandmother had uterine cancer. JSB: When I was pregnant with my first child, I went through the genetic testing common for Ashkenazi Jewish women. Why set it in Lower East Side, New York in 1935? What was the inspiration? HRN: This story has some classic relationship drama-mother-daughter dynamics, lovers who can’t commit. Lilith sat down with the author to talk about mother-daughter drama, having it all, and what makes a Modern Girl. Brown focuses on the relationship between 19-year-old Dottie Krasinsky and her mother Rose. A dazzling debut novel set in New York Citys Jewish immigrant community in 1935. Modern Girls The stunning debut novel by Jennifer S. Brown’s debut novel, Modern Girls (NAL/Penguin, April 5, 2016), handles timeless issues of women’s choices, setting it for added drama in the Jewish world of the Lower East Side before World War II. Read 576 reviews from the worlds largest community for readers. It’s a timeless story-could be happening right now. Her mother’s a stay-at-home, spends her life pushing her kids to make the most of theirs and dreams of her young political days when life used to mean so much more. She blows her salary on the latest fashions, escapes to the country with her friends when the city is stifling, and is in love with her boyfriend of three years.

Modern Girls by Jennifer S. Brown