There is almost nothing Jewish about The Lost Girl of Craven County by Emily Matchar. And that’s a good thing.
This novel, set during the Great Depression, follows a mysterious young woman who shows up unconscious, beaten, soaking wet, and stoically silent; and the snarky spinster (all of twenty-five and not yet married, what a shanda!) who first attempts to figure out her origins, then resolves to help her seek revenge on those who put her in this maltreated position. The novel could have taken place pretty much anywhere at any time prior to the internet making hiding one’s true identity a much more difficult endeavor than it was previously
Despite mentions of a family-owned pickle factory, a smattering of Yiddish phrases, the inevitable overbearing mother, aunts and cousins clucking about matchmakers, and a vague concern about trouble brewing over in Europe, The Lost Girl of Craven County is less reminiscent of classic Jewish novels set in the 1930s American South like Mary Glickman’s Marching to Zion and Jason Friedman’s Fire Year, and more akin to Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Like that 1885 novel, The Lost Girl of Craven County follows two very different people. One is an upper-middle class young Jewish woman still mourning the tragic death of her beloved younger brother and recovering from the mental breakdown that came with it. Her counterpart is a poor runaway from North Carolina’s tobacco country who is keeping her own secrets and looking for revenge. This mismatched pair sets out on an adventure — hopping railway cars rather than rafts — to expose society’s hypocrisy and the systematic mistreatment of its most vulnerable members, while learning about each other and themselves.
Now, more than ever, we are told, it is vital to promote Jewish stories in order to fight marginalization and, worse, dehumanization. However, it is just as important to demonstrate that Jews are not some confounding entity standing apart from American society. It’s important to remind everyone, including Jews themselves, that Jewish stories don’t have to be about exclusively Jewish concerns and uniquely Jewish battles.
The Lost Girl of Craven County doesn’t require a Jewish narrator to make it compelling to Jewish — and to non-Jewish — readers. That element could be removed from the story without weakening the narrative, or its emotional power. And that’s a good thing. Even if it’s not an immediately obvious one.
Alina Adams is the NYT bestselling author of soap opera tie-ins, figure skating mysteries and romance novels. Her Regency romance, The Fictitious Marquis was named a first Jewish #OwnVoices Historical by The Romance Writers of America. Her Soviet-set historical fiction includes The Nesting Dolls, My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, and the May 2025 Go On Pretending. More at: www.AlinaAdams.com.
