Explore the World of Unterzakhn: Fashion, Yiddish, and More!

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Unterzakhn, a stunning new graphic novel by Leela Corman, is out now in both hardcover format and a fixed-page eBook edition!

For six-year-old Esther and Fanya, the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side circa 1910 are both a fascinating playground and a place where life’s lessons are learned quickly and often cruelly. In drawings that capture both the tumult and the telling details of that street life, Unterzakhn (Yiddish for “Underthings”) tells the story of these sisters: as wide-eyed little girls absorbing the sights and sounds of a neighborhood of struggling immigrants; as teenagers taking their own tentative steps into the wider world (Esther working for a woman who runs both a burlesque theater and a whorehouse, Fanya for an obstetrician who also performs illegal abortions); and, finally, as adults battling for their own piece of the “golden land,” where the difference between just barely surviving and triumphantly succeeding involves, for each of them, painful decisions that will have unavoidably tragic repercussions.

Brush up on your Yiddish with these handy flashcards:

Next, visit our Pinterest board for a look at the fashion and architecture of early 20th century New York City:

Finally, watch Leela talk about the book: