Name: The Book of V
ISBN: 9781432883386

Anna Solomon

"This ... historical novel intertwines the lives of the Bible's Queen Esther, a senator's wife in the 1970s, and a Brooklyn mother in 2016, whose stories trace surprising and moving parallels across centuries"--

The Book of V

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK For fans of The Hours and Fates and Furies, a bold, kaleidoscopic novel intertwining the lives of three women across three centuries as their stories of sex, power, and desire finally converge in the present day. 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.

A Novel

The Book of V.

Cheri McElroy

I can see this book becoming talked about. It’s about three women, Queen Esther from the Bible, Vee, a 1970s Senator’s wife, and Lily, a 2016 woman. It’s about feminine desires, sexuality, and human longing. It makes a strong feminist statement.

For me, it was just confusing. The three stories moving from one chapter to the next, were jarring. And I really disliked Queen Esther’s story, although I am in the minority. The magical realism and total restructuring of the Biblical narrative made the story unrecognizable. This story was just not for me.

The Book of V

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