Born in Transylvania in 1899, Bella Spewack arrived on the streets of New York's Lower East Side when she was three. At twenty-two, while working as a reporter with her husband in Europe, she wrote a memoir of her childhood that was never published. More than seventy years later, the publication of Streets recovers a remarkable voice and revivifies a lost world.
In her critically acclaimed writing, Bella describes the sights, sounds, and characters of urban Jewish immigrant life after the turn of the century. Witty, street-smart, and unsentimental, Bella was a genuine American heroine who went on to become a celebrated author. Booklist comments, “The book provides a startling, clear-eyed look at the difficult life millions endured."