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.
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Fiction
Threadbare
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2023
Discussion Questions
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