Written with rage and passion about her own journey to creative self-fulfilment against the odds, the novel begins in the hermetic, traditional world of Polish Jewry before the first World War. Deborah is the daughter of an unworldly rabbi. Talented and ambitious but condemned to household chores, Deborah frets that she is not allowed to receive the same education and opportunities as her brothers. She fails in love with a communist but then an arranged marriage is proposed...This is a classic that scholars and fans of the Singers continually refer to for its authentic account of life in the Singer household and the struggle of Esther Kreitman to be free. Deborah was first published in Warsaw in Yiddish in 1936 and later translated by her son Maurice Carr into English in 1946 and published by W.G Foyle. It was republished by Virago in 1983 when her work was still unknown.