The Nature of Fragile Things

Starred review from December 21, 2020
Meissner (The Last Year of the War) spins an exceptional story about an Irish immigrant who lands in San Francisco shortly before the 1906 earthquake. After spending two years in New York City, Sophie Whalen, 20, answers a newspaper ad from widower Martin Hocking of San Francisco, who is seeking a wife for him and a mother for his daughter. Sophie falls head over heels for Martin’s five-year-old daughter, Kat, having given up having a child of her own, and looks forward to developing a bond with her new husband. But Sophie learns that all is not as it seems when a pregnant woman named Belinda Bigelow shows up on her doorstep hours before the earthquake, looking for her husband, James, who told Belinda he had business with Martin. Upon seeing a picture of Martin, Belinda recognizes him as James. This leads the two women to go through Martin’s papers, and they deduce he’d married both of them under different names. Unexpected and masterfully crafted twists and turns abound after the earthquake, as a federal marshall questions Sophie about Martin’s disappearance. The plucky and principled Sophie (who is hiding a few secrets of her own) captivates from the first page, while naive Belinda and sensitive Kat are standouts. Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end.

January 1, 2021

On November 6, 1906, in San Francisco, Sophie Whalen Hocking sits to answer a surprising set of questions posed by a U.S. Marshal. There are questions about her husband, Martin Hocking, and her stepdaughter, Kat, and how she came to be part of their family. Sophie emigrated from Ireland to New York City but had a difficult time after her brother married and moved away. She answered Martin's advertisement seeking a wife and stepmother for his daughter; seeking stability and longing for motherhood, Sophie traveled to California and married Martin. Six weeks after the catastrophic earthquake, Martin is nowhere to be found, and Sophie faces unanswerable questions. Just before the earthquake hit, a pregnant stranger appeared on her doorstep looking for Martin--calling him by another name. Soon after, Sophie unraveled a series of secrets set to rival the earthquake in magnitude. VERDICT Vividly rendered in the chaos and mass destruction of the historic earthquake, Meissner's latest (The Last Year of the War; As Bright as Heaven) is a testament to the strength and solidarity of women in crisis.--Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2021
Downtrodden by her tenement and factory life in New York, Irish immigrant Sophie answers an ad for a mail-order bride. She is met in San Francisco by Martin Hocking, a handsome widower who needs a stepmother for his daughter, Kat, who hasn't spoken since her mother died. They settle into a modest house near tony Nob Hill, and though Martin is often gone for his work as a traveling insurance salesman, Sophie is happy, especially as she bonds with Kat. Until one day in 1906, when a pregnant woman named Belinda Bigelow knocks on the door, looking for her husband, James. It turns out that Martin wasn't entirely truthful about his work, and as Sophie and Belinda uncover the worst of his lies, Martin comes home. There is a terrible fight, but before they can deal with the aftermath, the great earthquake hits, and soon Sophie, Belinda, and Kat are traversing the fire-ravaged city. Meissner's latest (after The Last Year of the War, 2019) is her best yet, an ultimately uplifting story of strong women and found family.

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