The Book of V., Anna Solomon
The Book of V., Anna Solomon
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Book of V.
A Novel

Author: Anna Solomon

Narrator: Dara Rosenberg, Eva Kaminsky, Gabra Zackman

Unabridged: 9 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/05/2020


Synopsis

**An Audiofile Earphones Award-winning production**

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 Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

About Anna Solomon

Anna Solomon is the author of Leaving Lucy Pear and The Little Bride and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, One Story, Ploughshares, Slate, and more. Coeditor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, Solomon was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

About Gabra Zackman

Gabra Zackman began recording audiobooks when they were called books on tape, and has recorded more than 500, in all genres.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on May 19, 2020

I listened to the Audible production of “The Book of V” by Anna Solomon, narrated by Dara Rosenberg, Eva Kaminsky, and Gabra Zackman. The narrators are brilliant. After I finished the audio, I immediately started it again, as I wanted to rehear. There are so many nuances and layers to the story. In......more

Goodreads review by Nursebookie on May 13, 2020

I enjoyed this book about the transcending role of women over three time frames, beginning with Lily from Brooklyn in 2016 as a mother and a second wife; Vivian a wife of an ambitious politician in the 1970’s who fights against misogyny; and the biblical Queen Esther using her beauty as power to sav......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on January 26, 2020

The story of three women, one of whom is Esther, the Persian Jewish woman chosen to be the wife of Xerxes in ancient stories. The stories intermesh, but I found it unsatisfying for reasons I can't explain.......more

Goodreads review by Debra on August 03, 2020

It sounded like it should have been good, instead it is a hot mess.......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on April 17, 2020

Bold, elegant, blisteringly raw and delicately complex reimaginin of the biblical Queen Esther, interwoven with contemporary characters, about being a strong, passionate woman in a male-dominated world. I just finished THE BOOK OF V(Henry Holt, May 2020) by Anna Solomon, and this book...oh this boo......more


Awards

  • NPR Best Book of the Year
  • Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year