Anarchists in Love — Robert Hough

In this compelling novel based on a true story, acclaimed author Robert Hough evokes the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are the rising revolutionaries Emma Goldman and Sasha Berkman, whose ultimately tragic affair fuels their fervent commitment to ridding the world of institutional cruelty and exploitation. Following this pair of poor young immigrants from their chance meeting at a New York café in 1890—when Emma is fleeing a loveless marriage, and Sasha is becoming convinced that only a new system of thought called anarchism holds any hope of escape from the misery gripping the lives of working people—Hough’s narrative traces their diverging paths through a fateful era. Swept up by her new egalitarian beliefs, Emma soon gains a reputation as a rousing public speaker, extolling the radical virtues of workers’ rights, free love and women’s liberation. At the same time, Sasha’s own ambitions become mired in jealousy and inhibition. But when shocking news arrives that industrialist Henry J. Frick is behind the fatal shootings of striking steel-plant workers in Pennsylvania, he and Emma are drawn together again by a plot for violent revenge that will serve as “propaganda of the deed.” As the first work of fiction to recount this captivating story, Anarchists in Love casts light not only on a politically charged chapter of history, but also on forces of desperation and insurgence that are still in effect today.