A novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity, all set against the backdrop of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
1905 – Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so anxious to get out of a Manhattan tenement that she answers a San Francisco widower’s mail-order bride ad. Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is handsome, but Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, his silent five-year-old daughter. Even so, something about her hastily manufactured happiness isn’t right. Then one early-spring evening a year later, 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.
Also available in Large Print, Russian, Hebrew
“Meissner spins an exceptional story….Unexpected and masterfully crafted twists and turns abound….Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end.”
Publisher’s Weekly, starred review