Book Festival: Jacqueline Friedland

Description

Told in two alternating narratives bound by a shocking parallel of issues such as reproductive rights and society's expectations of women and mothers, Counting Backwards is a compelling reminder that progress is rarely a straight line and always hard-won. In 2022 New York, lawyer Jessa Gidney takes on pro bono work at a detention center and uncovers a disturbing pattern of medical abuse—one with ties to her own family. In 1927 Virginia, Carrie Buck, a young woman from a poor background, becomes the face of a landmark eugenics case. As Jessa builds her case, she discovers chilling parallels between Carrie’s fate and the present. This is a riveting, compelling story--but it's also an important one, reminding us that history's darkest aspects can echo forward into our present day and that there is so much work left to do in the fight for freedom and equality.