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The Incorrigibles

A Novel

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The Incorrigibles

By: Meredith Jaeger
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Barrie Kreinik
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About this listen

An Editor's Choice at The Historical Novel Society

From USA Today bestselling author Meredith Jaeger comes an emotionally resonant novel about two women whose lives intersect as one resists the gentrification of her San Francisco neighborhood, and the other, eighty years earlier, fights for her freedom in nineteenth-century America. . . .


1890, San Francisco. Seduced by her employer’s nephew, Annie Gilmurray, an Irish maid, is accused of stealing the ring he promised her. Sentenced to one year in San Quentin, Annie is heartbroken and frightened among the inmates of the women’s ward: prostitutes, murderers, and pickpockets. But Annie finds beauty and friendship in a brutal place, where the women look out for one another, dreaming of a better life after release. But their world inside San Quentin's walls is a dangerous one, and when the unthinkable happens, Annie makes a choice that will alter the course of her future forever.

1972, San Francisco. Aspiring photographer Judy Morelli is grappling with the searing betrayal of her husband’s infidelity, subletting a San Francisco apartment while she pieces her life back together. When Judy discovers Annie's mugshot, she becomes fascinated and invested not just in Annie's fate but also in the history of her gentrifying South of Market Street neighborhood, joining the fight against redevelopment to maintain its rich community.

Exploring the different ways in which we are imprisoned and how we can break free, The Incorrigibles is a story of women reaching across the barriers of time, the unbreakable bonds of female friendship, and the forgotten histories of those pushed to society’s margins.
Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Mystery Women's Fiction Heartfelt San Francisco
All stars
Most relevant
I love the way Jaeger interweaves the plight of two women living nearly 100 years apart in San Francisco to reveal the many social injustices that persist through time. Things might look different on the surface, but Jaeger’s story highlights that the corruption and abuse of power present in the late 1800s was still strong in the 19070s…and is still ever-present today. This is a clever and un-put-downable story about inequality and the abuse of power that might be classified as historical fiction, but the social issues are timeless.

A gripping story that’s hard to put down

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