Ethel’s Song: Ethel Rosenberg’s Life in Poems

Krasner’s daring historical novel is a collection of fictionalized first-person poems that chronicles the life of Ethel Rosenberg (1915–1953), from her earliest years in a tenement on N.Y.C.’s Lower East Side to her final moments in Sing Sing prison, where she and her husband were executed for spying for the Soviets. As an idealistic young Jewish woman, Rosenberg dreamed of a career as an actor and singer, and fought for workers’ rights. In 1936, she met and fell in love with charismatic Julius Rosenberg (“When he talks,/ all conversations stop”), an engineering college student and eventual Communist Party member, then married him in 1939. In addition to detailing the couple’s lives as passionate Communists, culminating in their execution, this imagined account traces WWII’s development and the U.S.’s postwar anti-Communist hysteria. Krasner’s digestible poems build tension through Rosenberg’s consistently proud, defiant voice, and her confidence that she and Julius did nothing wrong: “How could helping/ the Soviet Union/ defeat Hitler/ make us the bad guys?” Family photos, interspersed throughout, lend poignancy; an epilogue and timeline provide context and additional historical background. Ages 13–17. Agent: Emelie Burl, Susan Schulman Literary. (Sept.)