Ethel Rosenberg

The Short Life and Great Betrayal of an American Wife and Mother

By: Anne Sebba

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Ethel Rosenberg was a supportive wife, loving mother to two small children and courageous idealist who grew up during the Depression with aspirations to become an opera singer.

On 19 June 1953 she became the first woman in the US to be executed for a crime other than murder. She was thirty-seven years old.

Ethel's conviction for conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union followed what FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called the 'trial of the century' in Cold War America and is still controversial. Now, Anne Sebba's masterly, meticulously researched and deeply moving biography finally tells Ethel's true story - a life barbarically cut short on the basis of tainted evidence for a crime she almost certainly did not commit.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Anne Sebba (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group

Critic reviews

Short-listed, Wingate Prize, 2022

"I don't think I've ever read a book that has moved me more." (Anthony Horowitz)

"Masterful, original and painfully gripping, a historic miscarriage of justice laid bare for our times." (Philippe Sands)

"Absolutely gripping in so many ways; beautifully written and superbly researched, a brilliant and fresh take on a famous case." (Simon Sebag Montefiore)