Women of Washington Hebrew Congregation Literary Club welcomes Samantha Woodruff to discuss her book “The Trade Off,” about a brilliant and ambitious young woman who strives to find her place amid the promise and tumult of 1920s Wall Street.

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About the Book

Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages. After college she’s determined to parlay her talent for the prediction game into personal and professional success. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for women don’t just come knocking. Bea will have to create them.

It’s easier for her golden-boy twin brother, Jake, who longs to reclaim all their parents lost after fleeing the pogroms in Russia to come to America. Well intentioned but undisciplined, Jake has a charm that can carry him only so far on Wall Street. So Bea devises a plan. They’ll be a secret team, and she’ll be the brains behind the broker. As Jake’s reputation, his heedless ego, and the family fortune soar, Bea foresees catastrophe: an impending crash that could destroy everything if she doesn’t finally take control.

Inspired by the true story of a pioneering investment legend, The Trade Off is a powerful novel about identity, sacrifice, family loyalties, and the complex morality of money.

About the Author

Samantha Greene Woodruff is the author of two Amazon bestselling historical fiction novels, The Lobotomist’s Wife (2022) and The Trade Off (2024). Sam spent fifteen years at Viacom’s Nickelodeon before leaving to parent her two young children.

After studying in the continuing education program at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Woodruff completed her first novel, The Lobotomist’s Wife, which was an Amazon First Reads pick. The Trade Off was a Zibby Award winner in three categories, including Best Book for the History Lover, the Jewish Book Council’s January 2025 book club pick for fiction, and a finalist for She Reads Best Historical Fiction of 2024. Sam contributed an essay “Jew-ish” about her conflicted relationship with her Judaism to the USA Today bestselling anthology On Being Jewish Now (2024) edited by Zibby Owens. Sam’s writing has also appeared in Newsweek, Writer’s Digest, Female First, LitHub, Writer’s Read and more.

Every year, we are pleased to present prominent writers of the nation’s newest works on topics of Jewish interest, often in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council. For more information, click here.