Spin: A Novel Based on a (Mostly) True Story

In 1895, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a young Jewish woman who’s married, with three children, embarks on a remarkable journey around the world on her bicycle, thanks to a boastful wager between two businessmen who wonder whether a single woman can cross the globe by bike in 15 months and support herself the whole time. Annie is thought to be the perfect candidate for this mission, and she jumps at the chance to escape the drudgery of her life. Because the trip requires her to abandon her family, though temporarily, she seeks to avoid scandal by transforming herself into “Annie Londonderry,” a colorful trailblazer who’s full of stories about her cycling adventures, some of which may not be entirely true. Nonfiction author Zheutlin (Rescued: What Rescued Dogs Teach Us), a distant relative of the real Annie Kopchovsky, researched this fascinating, but mostly forgotten, footnote in American history. Due to large gaps in historical record, and Annie’s own wild embellishments, Zheutlin’s fictionalized account of her life seems fitting. Annie describes her alleged adventures in first-person narrative, in a journal left for her granddaughter. She is witty, clever, and insightful, and Zheutlin brings her lively, innovative voice to life. Though she seems to have been occasionally self-serving, Annie was a true feminist pioneer.