Winter 2026

Judy Batalion last joined us as she soared onto the New York Times bestseller list and won the National Jewish Book Award for Light of Days, her searing history of Jewish women resistance fighters during World War II.

Now, she returns with her debut novel about two Jewish women in Warsaw on the verge of war who become unlikely allies in their search for an individual they both care for: Fanny, a daughter of the city’s elite who is too caught up in her longing for recognition as an artist to pay much attention to the signs that her life is about to crumble, and Zosia, a shtetl girl who has already felt the eruption of hate and has fled to the city to immerse herself in the budding youth movement.

When a radical photography professor Fanny idolizes and is part of Zosia’s movement disappears, the two women are thrown together in the pursuit of the elusive firebrand. Is Wanda simply hiding, or is her disappearance connected to the rise in antisemitic laws and university practices? Fanny and Zosia bridge their differences to look for the professor—and dodge the danger mounting around them in the process.

Judy Batalion joins us to talk about making the leap from nonfiction to fiction, the advantages of “career promiscuity” and the connection between Light of Days and The Last Woman of Warsaw.

Also the author of White Walls: A Memoir about Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess in Between, Judy Batalion has written essays and articles for a wide array of publications, worked as a curator, researcher, lecturer, script reader, performer, translator and a temp.