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Keith Mosman: Five Book Friday: Fearless New Collections from Asian American Poets (0 comment)
As Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month draws to a close, I wanted to highlight some of the recent books of poetry that have so impressed me. Here are five poets who have written collections that are each rich, wise, and fearless...
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  • Keith Mosman: A Long(ish) List of Recent Short Story Collections (0 comment)

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The Nature of Fragile Things

by Susan Meissner
The Nature of Fragile Things

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ISBN13: 9780451492180
ISBN10: 0451492188
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Synopsis

April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.

Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.

The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.

From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.


4.5 2

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Average customer rating 4.5 (2 comments)

`
techeditor , December 30, 2021 (view all comments by techeditor)
Although I didn’t expect to like THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS, I did. This is historical fiction that deals with the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. But what I heard about the fiction built around it sounded implausible to me. Maybe some parts of it are, but I liked the story. Sophie, an Irish 18-year-old who has been in New York for about three years, answers an advertisement from Martin for a mail-order bride. She wants to escape poverty; he claims that he wants to appear respectable. Sophie goes to San Francisco, and they immediately marry, even before going to his home there and meeting his six-year-old daughter, Katherine (Kat). Martin never acts like a proper husband, but Sophie is not concerned. It does bother her, though, that he never acts like a proper father to Kat, who she soon comes to love. When a pregnant woman appears on her doorstep one day while her husband is gone, Sophie learns the truth about Martin. He is guilty of far more than infidelity. And she will come to suspect even more. But, first, the earthquake. Sounds like an old-fashioned soap opera. That’s why I was, at first, turned off to this book. But, as with modern-day soap operas, you may get caught up in this story in spite of yourself.

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`
Silvers Reviews , February 03, 2021 (view all comments by Silvers Reviews)
A mail-order husband that turned out to be perfect until one morning a knock at the door shattered Sophie’s life. Actually there are two more women whose lives are shattered by Sophie’s husband. THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS takes us into the lives of Sophie, Belinda, Candace, and six-year-old Kat. Each woman has a different story, but Martin, Sophie’s husband, is at the center of all of them. This book was about life’s choices, the resilience of women, the beauty of friendship, the support women give each other, and an added bit of mystery. You will wonder where it is heading in the beginning, and it heads to another marvelous book by Susan Meissner. Ms. Meissner wove the story line around her well-researched account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which added to the tension and beauty of this book. 5/5 This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780451492180
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
02/02/2021
Publisher:
BERKLEY BOOKS
Pages:
384
Height:
1.40IN
Width:
6.30IN
Author:
Susan Meissner

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List Price:0.00
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