Rachel Zarrow February 28, 2021Updated: March 2, 2021, 8:42 pm
“Vera” by Carol Edgarian Photo: Scribner
Living in San Francisco in 1906, the eponymous Vera of Carol Edgarian’s latest novel is a headstrong and fiercely independent teenager.
Born to Rose, the madam of one of the city’s most notorious bordellos, and placed in the care of Morie, a woman with alcohol and gambling addictions, Vera lives between two worlds and two families. Save for what she gleans from the occasional visit to Rose’s mansion on Lafayette Square, “which sat like a fat queen on the throne of Pacific Heights,” Vera knows little about Rose, and what she does know — Rose’s occupation — she keeps to herself, while maintaining the charade that Morie is her mother.