Union Ave Books is excited to present Jacqueline Friedland for Counting Backwards. This free event will take place on January 15th at 6pm at our bookstore. Knoxville Jewish Alliance members are invited to join us at 5pm for a reception with light refreshments!
Please RSVP so we know to expect you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacqueline Friedland is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of both historical and contemporary women’s fiction. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School, she practiced as a commercial litigator for as long as she could stand it. She then returned to school to earn her Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has been writing ever since.
Jackie’s books have been awarded the 2020 and 2021 gold medals in fiction from Readers’ Favorite. Her novels have also been named the 2021 Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year, the SheReads Best Book Club Pick of 2021, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star finalist for 2022. She regularly reviews fiction for trade publications and appears at schools and other locations as a guest lecturer. Her fifth novel, Counting Backwards, was released by Harper Muse in March 2025.
Jackie lives in Westchester, New York with her husband, four children, and two dogs.
ABOUT COUNTING BACKWARDS
Counting Backwards is a powerful, emotionally charged novel that follows attorney Jessa Gidney as she fights for justice in the face of systemic abuse. When she takes on a case involving the forced sterilization of marginalized women, Jessa is pulled into a web of legal, ethical, and deeply personal challenges that threaten to unravel her career and her carefully ordered life.
As she investigates the truth behind a doctor accused of violating women’s rights under the guise of medical care, Jessa confronts both historical injustice and contemporary complacency. Weaving in a historical timeline based on the real-life history of Carrie Buck, a young woman who was sterilized by order of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927, the novel explores themes of bodily autonomy, institutional betrayal, and what it means to advocate for those without a voice. In both past and present, characters must reckon with the cost of doing what’s right when the system is rigged against you.
Inspired in part by true events, Counting Backwards is a gripping legal drama with a beating moral heart, perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult, Lisa Genova, or Erin Brockovich.
