by Anna Solomon
First published 2020
Lily sits in her Brooklyn apartment in 2016, torn between motherhood and her abandoned writing dreams. She married into a family but struggles with her sexual desires and intellectual ambitions. In 1970s Washington D.C., Vivian Barr plays the perfect political wife until her husband demands something that crosses her boundaries. Her refusal shatters their marriage and ripples through other lives. In ancient Persia, Esther lives precariously with her uncle's tribe outside the royal palace. A mistake brings disaster to her people, and they offer her to the king as their last hope for salvation. These three women exist centuries apart, yet their struggles with desire, duty, and survival echo across time. Each faces moments where submission and rebellion carry equal risks. Their stories reveal how women navigate the space between what they want and what the world demands of them.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: duty-vs-desire, found-family, submission-and-rebellion
Setting: Brooklyn, Persia, Washington D.C.
Period: 1970s, 2016, Ancient
320 pages · Kindle Edition · Henry Holt and Co.