The Nature of Fragile Things

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.