Beyond the Pale

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award: A beautiful novel about the strength of love and personal perseverance during the political fervor of the Progressive Era

Set in Russia and New York during the early twentieth century, Beyond the Pale follows the lives of two women born in a Russian-Jewish settlement who immigrate to New York’s Lower East Side. Gutke Gurvich is a midwife who travels to America with her partner, a woman passing as a man. Their story crosses with that of Chava Meyer, a girl who was attended by Gutke at her birth and was later orphaned during the Kishinev pogrom of 1903. Chava immigrates with the family of her cousin Rose, and the two girls begin working at fourteen as they live through the oppression and tragedies of their time. They grow to become lovers, which leads them to search for a community they can truly call their own.

Touching on the hallmarks of the Progressive Era—the Women’s Trade Union League, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, anarchist and socialist movements, women’s suffrage, anti-Semitism—Dykewomon’s Beyond the Pale is a richly detailed and moving story, offering a glimpse into a world that is often overlooked.

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“Sensuous, moving, inspiring: Beyond the Pale is a wonderful novel." —Sarah Waters, author of Fingersmith

“Beyond the Pale is a remarkable and unforgettable chronicle told through wisdom, passion and clarity by one of our community’s foremost storytellers.” —Feminist Bookstore News

“A wonderful novel . . . I wept like a fool for pages; these characters had become so strongly defined, I too felt like family.” —Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art

“Truly great novels aren’t written very often, but Beyond the Pale deserves all the glowing adjectives available . . . filled with memorable scenes and glorious characters.” —Bay Area Reporter

“One of the most compelling novels I have ever read . . . a work of remarkable importance.”—The Village Voice