| Label | Information |
|---|---|
| Dates & times |
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| Category | Arts & Writing, Living Well |
| Age Groups | Adult |
As a sponsor of the Jewish Community Center's Cultural Arts and Book Series, Wright Memorial Public Library is pleased to bring our patrons these speaker events. There is no charge for the events in this series and all are virtual. Please use the registration link to sign up to attend.
The Third Daughter
by Talia Carner
Even those who consider themselves well-versed in Jewish history will feel surprised — even horrified — by the story told in Talia Carner’s new novel, The Third Daughter. Set in the late nineteenth century, it tells of a Jewish-run syndicate who systematically kidnapped young women from Eastern Europe for the purpose of selling them as prostitutes in Buenos Aires. Carefully researched and meticulously novelized, Carner tells the story of Batya, the third of many daughters of a struggling Russian milkman. Batya’s two older sisters have already gone astray — one married a revolutionary and the other, a gentile. Existence is uncertain, and pogroms regularly decimate entire shtetls. Echoes of “Fiddler on the Roof” are unavoidable, but the parallels stop when Batya, at fourteen, catches the eye of what seems to be a rich, eligible man from “America.” Smooth and redolent with cologne, he promises Batya’s father that he will marry her when she is sixteen — meanwhile keeping her safe with his sister. The patriarch imagines a gilded world in which his daughter will ride in carriages and dine on fine china. Little does he know that there are will be no marriages or carriages.
Talia Carner is formerly the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine and a lecturer at international women’s economic forums. An award-winning author of five novels and numerous stories, essays, and articles, she is also a committed supporter of global human rights. Carner has spearheaded ground-breaking projects centered on female plight and women’s activism. She is a committed supporter of global human rights and has spearheaded projects centered on the subjects of female plight and women’s activism. Her five novels have been hailed for exposing society’s ills, the latest of which is The Third Daughter (HarperCollins, September 2019.) Set in Buenos Aires in the late 1800s, it is the story of a Jewish girl caught in sex trafficking. Talia Carner has given over 300 keynote speeches and presentations about the social issues behind her novels to civic, educational and religious organizations. She lives in New York and Florida.