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A review by natyweiss
Vera by Carol Edgarian
5.0
ARC provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
Vera is an unusual type of orphan. Her mother, a madam of the fancier bordello in San Francisco, paid another woman, a swedish widow with a daughter of her own named Pie, to raise her. The novel is set in the 1906 San Francisco, the year of the great quake and fire. On the day of her fifteenth birthday, one of the few days that she is invited into her biological mother's house, she suffers a double disappointment. One from herself for betraying a very close person and from her mother who points out her lack of beauty. That night she felt like she lost her honor.
On the night of Caruso's performance a major earthquake struck San Francisco. The following fires killed 3,000 people. With the adoptive mother dead, Vera and her sister Pie decide to go to Rose's house (Vera's biological mother). She was nowhere to be found. The next days they functioned in survival mode. Vera was forced to grow and make decisions for everyone's sake, rebuilding her new reality from the ruins of a world gone forever, reborn from the ashes.
It's a beautiful story about resilience, not only of an individual but of an entire community.
Impeccable prose with two main characters: Vera and the city of San Francisco. The rest of the characters are as adorable as the protagonist.
I highly recommend this story to historical fiction lovers but if the genre is not your cup of tea the novel is a wonderful coming of age tale.
I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vera is an unusual type of orphan. Her mother, a madam of the fancier bordello in San Francisco, paid another woman, a swedish widow with a daughter of her own named Pie, to raise her. The novel is set in the 1906 San Francisco, the year of the great quake and fire. On the day of her fifteenth birthday, one of the few days that she is invited into her biological mother's house, she suffers a double disappointment. One from herself for betraying a very close person and from her mother who points out her lack of beauty. That night she felt like she lost her honor.
On the night of Caruso's performance a major earthquake struck San Francisco. The following fires killed 3,000 people. With the adoptive mother dead, Vera and her sister Pie decide to go to Rose's house (Vera's biological mother). She was nowhere to be found. The next days they functioned in survival mode. Vera was forced to grow and make decisions for everyone's sake, rebuilding her new reality from the ruins of a world gone forever, reborn from the ashes.
It's a beautiful story about resilience, not only of an individual but of an entire community.
Impeccable prose with two main characters: Vera and the city of San Francisco. The rest of the characters are as adorable as the protagonist.
I highly recommend this story to historical fiction lovers but if the genre is not your cup of tea the novel is a wonderful coming of age tale.
I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐