Today’s Maximum Shelf pick is Anna Solomon’s bold, kaleidoscopic novel intertwining the lives of three women across three centuries, THE BOOK OF V.
Lily is a mother and a daughter. And a second wife. And a writer, maybe? Or she was going to be, before she had children. Now, in her rented Brooklyn apartment she’s grappling with her sexual and intellectual desires, while also trying to manage her roles as a mother and a wife in 2016.
Vivian Barr seems to be the perfect political wife, dedicated to helping her charismatic and ambitious husband find success in Watergate-era Washington D.C. But one night he demands a humiliating favor, and her refusal to obey changes the course of her life—along with the lives of others.
Esther is a fiercely independent young woman in ancient Persia, where she and her uncle’s tribe live a tenuous existence outside the palace walls. When an innocent mistake results in devastating consequences for her people, she is offered up as a sacrifice to please the King, in the hopes that she will save them all.
In THE BOOK OF V., these three characters’ riveting stories overlap and ultimately collide, illuminating how women’s lives have and have not changed over thousands of years.
“With tense, deft plotting, memorable characters and writing that glows with each sentence, THE BOOK OF V. is a striking effort that will leave readers long inhabiting the worlds of Vee, Lily and Esther.”–Shelf Awareness
See the full summary, review, and interview with Anna Solomon on Shelf-Awareness.com. AND enter to win an ARC!
Download the e-galley from Edelweiss here.
It sounds fascinating. From this description of Vee, I think of a different Vee, Virginia Woolf who had no children and what greatness we may have lost to conventionality.