The Vera Wright Trilogy

Set in 1940s wartime England, the trilogy follows young Vera, who leaves her cultivated Midlands home to become a nurse in a military hospital and is catapulted into adulthood through unorthodox love entanglements with both men and women, two illegitimate children, and finally emigration to Australia, where, from her new vantage point—now a doctor and writer—she looks back on her life’s journey. Combining the beauty of Virginia Woolf with the spare, heartbreaking insightfulness of Jean Rhys, the trilogy is both a literary tour de force and an accessible, universal portrait of a woman in search of sustaining love.

“It is not often that I discover a writer who creates a character who I wish could be a real life friend. Jolley’s unforgettable character, Vera Wright is . . . an utterly beguiling woman. She both defines and defies long-held notions of what it means to be female . . . . Jolley [is] as honest and intelligent as Virginia Woolf . . . witty, sharp, and engaging as Edith Templeton, and as aware of the traps and promise of being female as Kate Chopin….[The Vera Wright Trilogy] is a must read. . . .a beautiful, rich, and layered masterpiece.” –Nina Sankovitch, www.huffingtonpost.com

• Year of Publication: 2010
• Genre: Literature
• Audience: Adult