Only A Girl

About the Book

In the close-knit Syrian-Jewish community of Manchester, England, in the years before World War II, the men made—and enforced—the rules. Sons were expected to go into their father's business, daughters to remain with their mothers until they married. But Irene Gunther, the teenage daughter of a conservative cotton merchant, wanted more than marriage and a family. In Only A Girl, a touching and compelling memoir, she chronicles her struggle for identity as she is torn between the traditional world she was born into and the broader English world with its promise of freedom. This book also recalls the colorful, vibrant community built by the Jews from Aleppo, where the food was spicy, the pastries were sweet, and the manners were formal. Transplanted to the north of England, the Syrian Jews recreated their exotic, Middle-Eastern world, speaking Arabic on the street and centering their lives around their businesses, their extended families, and their Saturday morning worship in synagogue. Today, their community has all but disappeared. In Only a Girl, Irene Gunther brings it to life again.

About the Author

IRENE GUNTHER was born in England, graduated from Manchester University, and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before moving to the United States. She is the coauthor of a young adult biography, A Spy for Freedom: The Story of Sarah Aaronsohn (Lodestar/Dutton) and of Editing Fact and Fiction: A Concise Guide to Book Editing (Cambridge University Press). Her first-person pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, New York Newsday, and other magazines and newspapers. She lives in New York City.