I knew from reading As Bright as Heaven that there would likely be a twist at the end, so I was watching for that, but even suspecting it, I loved seeing it actually play out. there is definitely something a bit odd about her husband.Īnd on the eve of the earthquake, a knock at the door from a woman Sophie has never met unleashes all the secrets that Martin has been hiding. She has a child to care for, a safe place to live, and her life is far better than it was in either Ireland or New York. But Sophie, who can’t have children of her own, does her best to care for this little girl, especially because Martin travels for work much of the time, and the two of them grow quite close as the months pass.Īll in all, Sophie feels like it’s worked out pretty well. Kat is almost completely silent – it’s weeks before Sophie hears her utter a word at all – and she’s clearly bereft over the loss of her mother. What she IS looking for is someone to love and care for, and she quickly finds that in Martin’s five-year-old daughter, Kat. That’s fine by Sophie, who wasn’t looking for a sweeping romance. When she arrives in San Francisco, she marries widower Martin Hocking that same day – he’s extremely handsome, but also very withdrawn and doesn’t seem particularly interested in her. She’s an Irish immigrant living in New York City and the conditions in her tenement are so awful that she figures trading it in for a warm house and enough food is a safe enough gamble. The book centers around the massive San Francisco earthquake of 1906, but the story begins a few years before that fateful morning when Sophie Whalen answers a newspaper ad for a mail-order bride. I just finished listening to it a few days ago and I really enjoyed it! The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner So when I saw that she had a new book, The Nature of Fragile Things, coming out this year, I added it, unread, to the 2021 Everyday Reading Book Club lineup.

I read her phenomenal book, As Bright As Heaven, a couple of years ago and although it took me a bit to get into the story, by the end, I couldn’t read fast enough and I understood why people love her so much.

When I ask about favorite historical fiction writers, Susan Meissner is one of the MOST mentioned names.

The nature of fragile things synopsis