The Girls, Alone: Six Days in Estonia

By: Bonnie J. Rough

Narrated by: Bonnie J. Rough

NAMED A "BEST KINDLE SINGLE" BY AMAZON EDITORS.

In this short, funny, tender travelogue narrated by the author, a resurfacing writer hits the sauna, bares it all, and learns the true meaning of "saga".

Award-winning American author Bonnie J. Rough separates from her young family for a surprising journey into the difficult past and precarious present of Estonia, the former Soviet state of her heritage. Embarking on a journey to learn the fate of her great-great-grandmother Anna, she encounters World War II ghosts, Vikings, crones, recycled meat, a seven-ton prehistoric bull, gray hairs, and the ultimate librarian, but finds no bully bigger than Putin—or is it her own self-doubt?—in an adventure that delivers surprising lessons from her foremothers about happiness, autonomy, women’s legacies and the writer’s life.

From the ladies’ locker room to the edges of Russia, The Girls, Alone is a swift ride that brings its listeners to the most unexpected places and triumphantly answers its own high stakes. Bonnie J. Rough is the author of the acclaimed parenting guide Beyond Birds and Bees: Bringing Home a New Message to Our Kids about Sex, Love, and Equality, as well as the Minnesota Book Award-winning memoir Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA. Her work appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Slate, The Sun, dozens of literary journals, and anthologies including The Best American Science and Nature Writing, Modern Love, and The Best Creative Nonfiction. She lives and writes in her hometown of Seattle.

Cover design by Hannah Perrine Mode

©2015, 2025 Bonnie J. Rough LLC (P)2025 Bonnie J. Rough LLC