Play Book Tag discussion

The story covers about 2 years around the San Francisco earthquake in April of 1906. Interspersed throughout is the transcript of an interview of Sophie Hocking by Deputy U.S. Marshal Logan.

Sophie answers an advertisement placed by Martin Hocking seeking a wife for appearances and to care for his daughter who is silent since the death of her mother. An Irish immigrant with an appalling life in the tenements of NY she is eager for a fresh start and a child to care for. Over the next year Sophie must adapt to a distant husband and a needy child, a child whom she grows to love and consider her own.

Just before the earthquake Sophie finds a pregnant woman on her doorstep and unearths unbelievable facts about her husband. The earthquake throws all this in the air like Pick-Up-Sticks and leaves a mess behind, including what has happened to her husband.

This is a dramatic and poignant story, very well written. The only quibble I had was concerning the child and the way so many people's lives revolved around caring for her and making sure her life was unharmed. Decisions were made by characters that seemed unlikely, especially for a child they hardly knew.