THE WOMEN ARE NOT FINE: THE DARK HISTORY OF A POISONOUS SISTERHOOD HC – HOPE REESE

" Compelling TELEGRAPH Such a compelling account of a small but significant dark corner of history… Profound, angry, and tender all at once VIRGINIA FEITO, author of MRS MARCH An insightful, empathetic and well-researched account of a deeply fascinating and macabre true story KATE MOORE, author of THE RADIUM GIRLS Fascinating and very compelling ZOE VENDITOZZI, co-author of HOW TO KILL A WITCH A moving story of desperation, violence and survival HELEN LEWIS, author of DIFFICULT WOMEN The women of Nagyrev are desperate. They re abused by their husbands. They are feeding their newborns to livestock. At the turn of the 20th century, in the village of Nagyrev, Hungary, midwife Zsuzsanna Fazekas was more than a caretaker – she was a confidante. She helped poor women give birth; she assisted them with abortions; and she listened. Their stories were the same: husbands who drank, who beat them, who made their lives unbearable. In response, Auntie Zsuzsi asked one question: ""Why bother with them?"" Her solution was arsenic. Soon, women began slipping this concoction, made by dissolving flypaper in water, into their husbands porridge, stews, and brandy. And over the next twenty years, the quiet village became the epicenter of one of the deadliest poisoning epidemics of the 20th century – according to some estimates, up to 300 people in the region were murdered. Why did they do it? How did these murders spin out of control? How did these women get away with their crimes for two decades? In The Women Are Not Fine, journalist Hope Reese pieces together archival newspapers, court documents, police records, and the vital work of historians, sociologists, and psychologists, diving deep into the truth behind this extraordinary event. Her findings serve as a stark warning: when women in a community are pushed to the brink, the consequences reverberate through history. The Women Are Not Fine is more than a true crime story. It s a timely, haunting exploratio