Publication Date: March 11, 2025
Told in two alternating narratives bound by a shocking parallel of issues such as reproductive rights and society’s expectations of women and mothers, Counting Backwards is a compelling reminder that progress is rarely a straight line and always hard-won.Â
New York, 2022. Jessa Gidney is trying to have it all—a high-powered legal career, a meaningful marriage, and hopefully, one day, a child. But when her professional ambitions come up short and Jessa finds herself at a turning point, she leans into her family’s history of activism by taking on pro bono work at a nearby detention center. There she meets Isobel Perez—a young mother fighting to stay with her daughter—but as she gets to know Isobel, an unsettling revelation about Isobel’s health leads Jessa to uncover a horrifying pattern of medical malpractice within the detention facility. One that shockingly has ties to her own family.
Virginia, 1927. Carrie Buck is an ordinary young woman in the center of an extraordinary legal battle at the forefront of the American eugenics conversation. From a poor family, she was only six years old when she first became a ward of the state. Uneducated and without any support, she spends her youth dreaming about a different future—one separate from her exploitative foster family—unknowing of the ripples her small, country life will have on an entire nation.
As Jessa works to assemble a case against the prison and the crimes she believes are being committed there, she discovers the landmark Supreme Court case involving Carrie Buck with shockingly similar implications to the one before her now. Her connection to the case, however, is deeper and much more personal than she ever knew—sending her down new paths that will leave her forever changed and determined to fight for these women, no matter the cost.
The lives of two women more than a century apart unfold in a riveting story inspired by a Supreme Court case.
Author Jacqueline Friedland uses a dual timeline in Counting Backwards that illustrates the challenges of women’s rights.
Attorney Jessa Gidney desperately wants to have it all—marriage, career, and family. In spite of her efforts, though, becoming a mother continues to be out of reach.
Her search for fulfillment leads to volunteer work at an ICE detention center. This is a timely topic given today’s political climate, but Jessa’s discovery of medical malpractice sends ripples through her life.
Jessa’s story alternates with a compelling narrative featuring Carrie Buck, who grew up poor in the foster system. When we think of reproductive rights these days, we tend to focus on abortion. However, there’s much more to reproductive rights as it relates to bodily autonomy.
While the topics portrayed in the story are challenging, it’s essential for readers to make the connection between the past and present.
Counting Backwards offers a reminder that the battle for freedom often creates casualties along the way.
Jacqueline Friedland is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a law degree from NYU and a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Jackie regularly reviews fiction for trade publications and appears at schools and other locations as a guest lecturer. She lives just outside New York City with her husband, four children, and two dogs.
