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.

Autorentext
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.

Klappentext

'An insightful, empathetic and well-researched account of a deeply fascinating and macabre true story' KATE MOORE , New York Times bestselling author of The Radium Girls

'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 MRS MARCH

'Fascinating and very compelling' ZOE VENDITOZZI, co-author of HOW TO KILL A WITCH

'A moving story of desperation, violence and survival' HELEN LEWIS, author of DIFFICULT WOMEN

Abusive husbands. Desperate women. Poisonous solutions.

At the turn of the 20th century, the women of Nagyrév, Hungary, were in trouble. Their stories were hauntingly similar: husbands who drank, who beat them, who made their lives unbearable.

The village midwife - their confidante - offered an answer: arsenic. Soon, women began slipping poison into their husbands' brandy, porridge, and stews. Over the next twenty years, the quiet village became the epicentre of one of the deadliest series of poisonings in modern history.

In The Women Are Not Fine, journalist Hope Reese pieces together archival newspapers, court documents, police records and more to uncover the truth behind this extraordinary case. Her findings serve as a stark warning: when women are pushed to the brink, the consequences can reverberate through history.