Anarchists in Love: A Novel

In this compelling novel, acclaimed author Robert Hough recreates the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are real-life revolutionists Emma Goldman and Alexander “Sasha” Berkman, whose passionate love affair fuels their commitment to creating a better world.

Following their chance meeting at a New York café in 1890—Emma is fleeing a loveless marriage, while Sasha is becoming convinced that only a new system of thought called anarchism will liberate working people from poverty—two poor, young immigrants join New York’s political underground to overthrow all forms of government. Swept up by her new egalitarian beliefs, Emma gains a reputation as a rousing public speaker, extolling the radical virtues of workers’ rights, free love and women’s liberation. At the same time, Sasha’s own ambitions become mired in jealousy and inhibition. But when shocking news arrives that industrialist Henry C. Frick has ordered the fatal shootings of striking steel-plant workers in Pennsylvania, Sasha and Emma plot a violent act that, they hope, will ignite a worldwide anarchist revolution.

As the first work of fiction to recount this captivating story, Anarchists in Love casts light not only on a politically charged chapter of history, but also on forces of desperation and insurgence that are still in effect today.

“Every generation needs to discover Emma Goldman. Anarchists in Love breathes new life into the famous anarchist’s big ideas, big passions and even bigger hopes for a better future. Robert Hough has written a novel crammed with talk and sex and the heady energy of the times.”