The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street — Susan Jane Gilman

An epic novel of a fierce young immigrant's rise to become the greatest ice cream maker in America ... and the events that nearly destroy her.

As a child in 1913, Malka Treynovsky flees Russia for New York with her family -- only to be crippled and abandoned in the streets as soon as she arrives.

Taken in by a tough-loving Italian ices peddler, Malka survives through cunning and inventiveness, quietly absorbing the secrets of his trade. When she falls in love with Albert, an illiterate radical, they set off together across America in an ice cream truck to seek their fortune. Slowly, she transforms into Lillian Dunkle, whom President Eisenhower christens "The Ice Cream Queen of America" -- doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated TV personality.

Spanning seventy years, Lillian's rise is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition, to World War II, to the disco days of Studio 54. Yet she is nothing like the whimsical, motherly "ice cream lady" she portrays in the media. Conniving, irreverent, and profane, Lillian is an indomitable businesswoman who prefers a good stiff drink to a sundae. And when her past starts catching up with her, her world implodes spectacularly.