Check This Out: Judy Batalion & 'The Last Woman of Warsaw' plus digital-first publishing

NHPR
May 1, 2026

Check This Out features author and host Rachel Barenbaum in conversation with up-and-coming authors you may not have discovered yet.

"The Last Woman of Warsaw" is the debut novel by the author of "The Light of Days." It follows two very different Jewish women in Warsaw in the late 1930s.

Fanny Zelshinsky, an artist from an elite Jewish family, is deciding whether or not to go through with her upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Zosia Dror has fled her religious family to advocate for social equality as part of a new youth movement.

But when famous artist Wanda Petrovsky goes missing, this unlikely duo works together to find Wanda before it’s too late.