Book Blurb:
The turn of the 20th century finds fourteen-year-old Batya in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family endless pogroms. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and passage to America.
Feeling like a princess in a fairytale, Batya leaves her old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon she discovers that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her to America: Buenos Aires, a vibrant, growing city in which prostitution is not only legal but deeply embedded in the culture. And now Batya is one of thousands of women tricked and sold into a brothel.
As the years pass, Batya forms deep bonds with her “sisters” in the house as well as some men who are both kind and cruel. Through it all, she holds onto one dream: to bring her family to America, where they will be safe from the anti-Semitism that plagues Russia. Just as Batya is becoming a known tango dancer, she gets an unexpected but dangerous opportunity—to help bring down the criminal network that has enslaved so many young women.
My Review: 4.5 stars
The Third Daughter proved to be another compelling and gripping story by Talia Carner. I adored her earlier book The Jerusalem Maiden so my expectations were high. This one definitely met the elevated bar it was being held to.
The book was loosely inspired by Sholem Aleichem’s book, Railroad Stories, specifically the short story about Tevye the dairyman meeting a smooth-talking man from Buenos Aires. Yes, this is the same author that wrote Tevye’s Daughters, which was the motivation behind Fiddler on the Roof. Carner took the opportunity to explore what if someone’s daughter, similar to Tevye’s, got swindled into marrying a rich man, only to be thrust into a life of prostitution. Through that marriage, Carner was able to shine a light on one of Buenos Aries most horrific footnotes in history, the Jewish prostitution slave trade.
I’ve read a lot of Jewish fiction and I’m always amazed and gladdened when I learn something new. Unfortunately, this part of Jewish history was something I’d rather forget. After reading this book, I was up to my eyeballs trying to learn more about this organized crime group Zwi Migdal. The author has many articles, links to movies and interviews about this topic. There is no doubt that Carner did an immense amount of research on this topic.
The story is easy to get hooked into and Batya is a character to adore and root for. She’s strong, smart and knows how to persevere. Her drive for survival isn’t just about saving herself. She is fighting to protect her family, especially her sisters, and the other women kept as prisoners all over Buenos Aires. The friendships Batya makes with other women in the brothel are the relationships that sustain her through her life of desperation and fear.
The tango dance was an important symbol throughout the novel. Watching Batya grow from a naïve fourteen-year-old to a beautiful and skilled dancer was like watching a flower blossom in snow. She was a fighter. Book clubs will love this book. There’s so much to discuss. Note: Carner is careful to make sure the reader knows the pain and horrors that take place without being over explicative, however there are some brutal scenes, so consider this a warning if this is a trigger for you.
Quotes I liked:
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