Buy new:
$17.56$17.56
FREE delivery: Wednesday, Feb 15 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: sevenflowers7
Buy Used: $10.96
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
99% positive over last 12 months
FREE Shipping

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


The Boston Girl: A Novel Hardcover – December 9, 2014
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | — | $3.37 |
Enhance your purchase
Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie’s intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can’t imagine—a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture, and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love.
Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her “How did you get to be the woman you are today.” She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.
Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant’s previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateDecember 9, 2014
- Dimensions6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- ISBN-109781439199350
- ISBN-13978-1439199350
"Sneezy the Snowman" by Maureen Wright for $6.76
B-R-R-R-R! AH-CHOO! Sneezy the Snowman is cold, cold, cold. To warm up, he drinks cocoa, sits in a hot tub, stands near a warm fire–and melts! | Learn more
Frequently bought together
- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, December 2014: There’s a lot that’s familiar about The Boston Girl. A tale of a plucky immigrant girl at the turn of the century, it addresses some of the same themes as other contemporary novels, including the author’s breakout The Red Tent: religion, feminism, the pull between tradition and the modern world. Here, our heroine is Addie Baum of Boston, now in her eighties telling the story of her life to her twentysomething granddaughter. And what a life it was: born in 1900, Addie survived the travails of aggressive greenhorn parents, world wars, abusive men and a flu epidemic to become a woman, finally, with a voice and a life of her own. What makes this story engaging is just that old-fashioned straightforwardness, as well as its perfect ear for the locutions of the time. Someone is “smiling to beat the band.” Addie “can really cut a rug.” You had to “kiss a lot of frogs before [you] found a prince.” No wonder this book rings so true: reading it feels like lazing away a winter afternoon with a beloved aging relative paging through a family scrapbook. – Sara Nelson
Review
“Diamant infuses [The Boston Girl] with humor and optimism, illuminating a wrenching period of American progress through the eyes of an irresistible heroine.” ― People
"A graphic, page-turning portrait of immigrant life in the early twentieth century...an inspirational read.” ― Booklist
“The story of every immigrant and the difficulties of adapting to and accepting an unfamiliar culture." ― Huffington Post
"Enjoyable fiction with a detailed historical backdrop." ― Kirkus
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Nobody told you?
Ava, sweetheart, if you ask me to talk about how I got to be the woman I am today, what do you think I’m going to say? I’m flattered you want to interview me. And when did I ever say no to my favorite grandchild?
I know I say that to all of my grandchildren and I mean it every single time. That sounds ridiculous or like I’m losing my marbles, but it’s true. When you’re a grandmother you’ll understand.
And why not? Look at the five of you: a doctor, a social worker, two teachers, and now you.
Of course they’re going to accept you into that program. Don’t be silly. My father is probably rolling over in his grave, but I think it’s wonderful.
Don’t tell the rest of them, but you really are my favorite and not only because you’re the youngest. Did you know you were named after me?
It’s a good story.
Everyone else is named in memory of someone who died, like your sister Jessica, who was named for my nephew Jake. But I was very sick when you were born and when they thought I wasn’t going to make it, they went ahead and just hoped the angel of death wouldn’t make a mistake and take you, Ava, instead of me, Addie. Your parents weren’t that superstitious, but they had to tell everyone you were named after your father’s cousin Arlene, so people wouldn’t give them a hard time.
It’s a lot of names to remember, I know.
Grandpa and I named your aunt Sylvia for your grandfather’s mother, who died in the flu epidemic. Your mother is Clara after my sister Celia.
What do you mean, you didn’t know I had a sister named Celia? That’s impossible! Betty was the oldest, then Celia, and then me. Maybe you forgot.
Nobody told you? You’re sure?
Well, maybe it’s not such a surprise. People don’t talk so much about sad memories. And it was a long time ago.
But you should know this. So go ahead. Turn on the tape recorder.
—
My father came to Boston from what must be Russia now. He took my sisters, Betty and Celia, with him. It was 1896 or maybe 1897; I’m not sure. My mother came three or four years later and I was born here in 1900. I’ve lived in Boston my whole life, which anyone can tell the minute I open my mouth.
Product details
- ASIN : 1439199353
- Publisher : Scribner; First Edition (December 9, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781439199350
- ISBN-13 : 978-1439199350
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #726,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #643 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #1,284 in Jewish Literature & Fiction
- #7,410 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

In my first novel, THE RED TENT, I re-imagined the culture of biblical women as close, sustaining, and strong despite the fact that, in most ways, they were restricted and vulnerable in body, mind, and spirit. My new book, PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE, takes on women's bodies and freedom in an entirely different way.
When the movie, Period. End of Sentence. won an Oscar in 2019, the film’s producer and founder of The Pad Project, Melissa Berton, told the audience: “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.” Inspired by the documentary, I mya collection of essays describes the cultural roots of menstrual injustice and how it erodes self-esteem, limits opportunities and even threatens lives. But the also book celebrates a new generation of activists and innovators working to end period poverty and stigma, and also explores the emerging world of period products, advertising, activism art, and comedy.
When I was a child, the public library on Osborne Terrace in Newark, New Jersey, was one of the first places I was allowed to walk to all by myself. I went every week, and I can still draw a map of the children's room, up a flight of stairs,where the Louisa May Alcott books were arranged to the left as you entered.
Nonfiction, near the middle of the room, was loaded with biographies. I read several about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and Helen Keller, with whom I share a birthday.
But by the time I was 11, the children's library was starting to feel confining,so I snuck downstairs to the adult stacks for a copy of The Good Earth. (I had overheard a grown-up conversation about the book and it sounded interesting.)The librarian at the desk glanced at the title and said I wasn't old enough for the novel and furthermore my card only entitled me to take out children's books.
I defended my choice. I said my parents had given me permission, which was only half a fib since my mother and father had never denied me any book. Eventually,the librarian relented and I walked home, triumphant. I had access to the BIG LIBRARY. My world would never be the same.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2020
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
It was a good read.
And Anita Diamant obviously got tired of her story as she ends it in the 1930's, with a quick wrap up to the present day of 1985. What about everything that came later? It's a cop out to start in 1985 and take the story only as far as the '30's. If you don't want to write past that date, if you want your history to centre only on the first 30 years of the 20th century, then the format should have been different. It should have been written as a first person story, not a monologue story told to someone else, or it should have been written as third person, which would have been my preference to lend some more drama.
But my biggest criticism is of the monologue itself. It is mostly told without emotion, the way one would relate a story to someone else, yes, but not a format for a satisfying read from a novel. Three stars because Diamant writes well and the story flows and is very readable. It's a quick read, informative and fairly pleasant, so if you are interested in the topic and want a light read, then I recommend it. But don't expect much more.
Top reviews from other countries

Addie recounts her life with all the struggles that you would expect a young woman to go through – growing up, love, relationships, family drama, death and much more but with the additional cultural difficulties to make it just that little bit harder.
What is brilliant is that Addie’s life journey parallels history – the war, the pandemic etc and because of her story, as a reader you get intimate details of all the historical drama.
The Boston Girl is brilliant. An absolute gem of a book.



4.5 stars
