num_pages: 320
description: Anna Solomon's kaleidoscopic novel intertwines the lives of a Brooklyn mother in 2016 a senators wife in 1970s Washington D.C. and the Bibles Queen Esther whose stories of sex power and desire overlap and ultimately convergeshowing how womens roles have and have not changed over thousands of years.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 shes grappling with her sexual and intellectual desires while also trying to manage her roles as a mother and a wife.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 lifealong with the lives of others.Esther is a fiercely independent young woman in ancient Persia where she and her uncles 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.Following in the tradition of The Hours and The Red Tent The Book of V. is a bold and contemporary investigation into the enduring expectations and restraints placed on womens lives.
language: English
title: The Book of V.
publisher: Henry Holt & Company