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May 4, 2020

Anna Solomon

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes ANNA SOLOMON—author of the celebrated novels Leaving Lucy Pear and The Little Bride—for a discussion of her latest novel, The Book of V. She will be joined in conversation by celebrated author JOANNA RAKOFF.

Details

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 Anna Solomon's 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.

About Author(s)

Anna Solomon is the author of Leaving Lucy Pear and The Little Bride and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times MagazineOne StoryPloughsharesSlate, and more. Coeditor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, Solomon was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Joanna Rakoff is the author of the memoir, My Salinger Year, and the novel, A Fortunate Age. She has written for the New York Timesthe Los Angeles TimesVogue, and other publications. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.