The Lost Women of Azalea Court

by Ellen Meeropol

Overview

On a chilly November morning, eighty-eight-year-old Iris Blum goes missing from Azalea Court, a six-bungalow development on the grounds of a long-closed state mental hospital. Her husband, Asher Blum, was the last head psychiatrist at the hospital and is writing a book about the treatment of mental illness. Their daughter Lexi, the neighbors, and police detective McPhee suspect Dr. Blum of being involved in Iris’s disappearance. When the searches and interviews come up empty, the neighbors dig into the past—Asher’s childhood experiences with anti-Nazi partisans in the forests of Poland, unethical practices at the mental hospital, and Iris’s mysterious best friend, Harriet. The neighbors of Azalea Court, Lexi, Harriet, and Detective McPhee narrate this story together, uncovering ghosts, secrets, and lies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636280509
Publisher:	Red Hen Press
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	453,448
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest, and the play Gridlock. Essay and short story publications include Ms. Magazine, The Writer’s Chronicle, Guernica, and The Boston Globe. Her work has been honored by the Sarton Prize, the Women’s National Book Association, the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and PBS NewsHour. A founding member of Straw Dog Writers’ Guild, Ellen coordinates their Social Justice Writing project and lives in Northampton, MA.

Editorial Reviews

A richly-told story of a marriage—and a community—unraveled by secrets, knit back by love. The Lost Women of Azalea Court is a beautiful, wise, and big-hearted novel.”

—Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings

"The Lost Women of Azalea Court begins with a seemingly simple, explainable mystery: an eighty-eight-year-old woman disappears from the house she shares with her husband, a psychiatrist, and the former head of the now-closed state mental hospital for which Azalea Court served as staff housing. But that mystery is just one of many related, slowly unveiled mysteries and secrets, some of which go back to the Holocaust and the Red Scare after World War II. In the search for the missing woman, the women of Azalea Court, a delightful mix of characters, unexpectedly band together. In Ellen Meeropol’s deft hands, lost women are found—and begin to find justice—in a most satisfying, enjoyable way."

—John Mutter, co-founder and editor in chief of Shelf Awareness

• Reviewed by Mom Egg Review

From the Publisher

08/01/2022

On a chilly November evening in Northampton, MA, Iris Blum goes missing. She lives on Azalea Court, a small group of houses located on the grounds of a former state mental hospital. Her husband, Asher, is the 94-year-old former head psychiatrist at the hospital. He is writing a book about mental illness, and Iris has refused to help him. The police investigation, headed by Detective McPhee, is difficult. She and Lexi, Iris and Asher's daughter, think that the psychiatrist may be involved in the disappearance. The residents, although they live in proximity, do not know each other well. The story, narrated in parts by each of them, reveals women with traumatic pasts. Dr. Blum, a Holocaust survivor who fought with the partisans, is stubborn and domineering. As the search for Iris continues, the community's lies, secrets, and traumas reveal themselves. This is a story about emotional abuse, unethical practices at mental hospitals, McCarthyism, and how they affect life. VERDICT This debut by the daughter-in-law of the late Julius and Ethel Rosenberg contains mystery elements, but it's primarily a story of loss, healing, and women's strength.—Barbara M. Bibel

Library Journal