Vera (Edgarian novel)

Set in San Francisco in 1906, Vera tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, the daughter of the town’s leading madam, coming of age in the aftermath of the city’s devastating earthquake and fire and centers on themes of displacement, societal upheaval, and reinvention with a cinematic cast of well known as well as fictional characters.

Edgarian’s third novel Vera (2021) was an O Magazine Most Anticipated Read,[1] an Indiebound Pick of the Month,[2] and was described in a Booklist Starred Review[3] as “Brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized,” and the Los Angeles Review of Books[4] wrote about Vera: “If there’s a book that speaks urgently to a time of grief, resilience, wounding loneliness, and collective hope in one of the deadliest pandemics in history, it is Vera — a work to be cherished for what it uncovers in the pages and, possibly, the heart of the reader.”

—Literary Hub’s Carol Edgarian and Ann Beattie Talk Complex Characters and Literary Inspirations[5]

—Good Housekeeping’s 25 Best Historical Fiction Books to Take You Back in Time[6]

—Good Morning America’s 25 must-read books for March[7]

—San Francisco Chronicle’s With ‘Vera,’ Carol Edgarian transports readers to a darker age of San Francisco[8]

—Medium’s Finding Hope in the Pages of a Book[9]

—Alta Journal’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”[10]

—Buzzfeed’s “19 New Historical Fiction Books We Think You're Going To Love”[11]

—National Book Review’s “5 Hot Books”[12]

—New York Journal of Books’s “Vera: A Novel”[13]

—Washington Post’s “‘Vera’ bears witness to the lives ruined by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake”[14]

—Reader’s Choice’s “Your 6 Favorite Historical Novels and What to Read Next”[15]