Pirate Patty Reviews

New York Times bestselling author Anne Sebba’s moving biography of Ethel Rosenberg, the wife and mother whose execution for espionage-related crimes defined the Cold War and horrified the world.

In a case that shook the nation and left a lot of people wondering what the truth was and how it could involve electrocuting a woman for espionage with evidence as shaky as jello.

This is the first look I have seen at Ethel by herself. Who she was as a person, as a mother and wife, and what her dreams were. What is the truth? There has been new evidence found since her death and this book looks at all of it. The bulk told through letters with her husband, her lawyer, and her psychotherapist during her three years in jail. Two of those in Solitary.

Ethel wanted nothing more than to be an opera singer a good wife and a good mother. But in the 1950’s she finds her self caught up in the political witch hunt that was the McCarthy era. Anti-Semitism, Male dominated society and all the other injustices that women were forced to endure.

When they came for her husband, she never said a word. Her love and loyalty was so great she refused to incriminate him in anything. Her brother wasn’t as loyal or kind. He perjured himself to incriminate his own sister. The government knew this. And yet they were both found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union and put on Death Row.

In June of 1953, Julius walked into the death chamber and was electrocuted. A horrible way to die. A few minutes later Ethel was led in and courageously and calmly let the government kill her.

That seems like a long time ago, but much of the same is still going on. Government is still running roughshod on the rights of the people and still condoning the hate.

I hated reading this and I needed to read this. Confronting our history is the only way to change it.

NetGalley/ June 08, 2021 St. Martin’s Press