Sleeping Fires: a Novel

The novel follows the arrival in 1860s San Francisco of a Boston-born woman married to a popular local physician and the scrutiny she endures from an entrenched society of Southern-origin matrons. Through salons, carriage calls, and whispered judgments, the narrative exposes rigid codes of class, regional prejudice, and gendered expectations, and traces how personal reputation, social ambition, and private feeling collide in a provincial but changing city. Episodes alternate social scenes with intimate moments to show how acceptance is negotiated, resisted, or weaponized, highlighting the costs borne by those who challenge or transgress established hierarchies.