The Women Are Not Fine

The women in Nagyrev are desperate. They are suffering. The Women Are Not Fine brings together newspapers, court documents and police records to explore "one of the biggest mass poisoning events in modern history" when midwife Zsuzsanna Fazekas arrived at the village of Nagyrev in Hungary in 1911. When Fazekas began listening to the problems women were having at home, she offered a solution - arsenic - and a group of women, who became known as the "Angelmakers", began poisoning their husbands. Nearly 20 years later, it had turned into an epidemic, spiraling into the greatest poisoning case of the 20th century. In 1929, after an anonymous letter was sent to a newspaper in a nearby town, Szolnok, a police investigation unearthed 50 graves; 40 showed signs of arsenic poisoning. But estimates say that up to 300 people in Tiszazug -- a rural region south of Budapest, along the Tisza River -- may have been killed. Nagyrev was dubbed "the murder district" of Hungary. More than 100 women were held in Szolnok prison, charged with murder.

Préface

The untold story of the women behind the greatest mass poisoning of the 20th century

Auteur

Hope Reese is a journalist writing for *the *New York Times, Shondaland, Vox and dozens of other publications covering subjects ranging from culture to politics to technology. She is published in the collection Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo (Verso Books). The Women Are Not Fine is her first book.

Texte du rabat

The women in Nagyre v are desperate. They are suffering. `
They are being abused by their husbands.
They are feeding their newborns to livestock.

Midwife Zsuzsanna Fazekas first arrived at the village of Nagyre v, Hungary in 1911 to assist the impoverished women with abortions. She offered them a solution: arsenic, made of kitchen larder flypaper boiled with vinegar. But when they told her of the violence they suffered at the hands of their husbands, she concluded, "Why put up with them?"

Nearly twenty years later, it had become an epidemic and spiralled into the greatest mass poisoning event of the 20th century.

But it wasn't murder of their unborn children. It was the murder of their husbands.

In THE WOMEN ARE NOT FINE we follow these women to the noose.

Résumé

The untold story of the women behind the greatest mass poisoning of the 20th century

The women in Nagyrev are desperate. They are suffering. `
They are being abused by their husbands.
They are feeding their newborns to livestock.

Midwife Zsuzsanna Fazekas first arrived at the village of Nagyrev, Hungary in 1911 to assist the impoverished women with abortions. She offered them a solution: arsenic, made of kitchen larder flypaper boiled with vinegar. But when they told her of the violence they were suffering at the hands of their husbands, she concluded, "Why put up with them?"

Nearly twenty years later, it had spiralled into an epidemic and the greatest mass poisoning event of the 20th century.

But it wasn't murder of their unborn children. It was the murder of their husbands.

In THE WOMEN ARE NOT FINE we follow these women to the noose.