'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 Victorian Psycho
and Mrs March 'Fascinating and very compelling.' ZOE VENDITOZZI co-author of HOW TO KILL
A WITCH 'A meticulously researched and sensitively rendered portrait of a community of
women' ERIN KEANE author of Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me 'Hope Reese has
sleuthed out a riveting remarkable true story that raises questions like the best dystopian
fiction' PEGGY ORENSTEIN author of Girls & Sex 'A moving story of desperation violence
and survival' HELEN LEWIS author of Difficult Women 'A feat of investigative reporting . .
. This book proves that our past is present' ELIZABETH FLOCK New Yorker writer and author of
The Furies 'Enthralling . . . A fascinating read' STEPHANIE COONTZ author of Marriage a
History ' Hugely well-researched - an intriguing (and thoughtful) antidote to stereotypes
about gendered violence.' GINA RIPPON author of The Gendered Brain The dark history of a
poisonous sisterhood The women of Nagyrév 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 Nagyrév 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 exploration of what happens when women's suffering goes
unanswered.
