The Incorrigibles: A Novel

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 amongst 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 mug shot, 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.

Story Locale:San Francisco

About the Author

Meredith Jaeger is the USA Today bestselling author of The Dressmaker's Dowry and Boardwalk Summer. Meredith was born and raised in Berkeley, California, and holds a BA in modern literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives outside San Francisco.

Author Residence: San Francisco, CA

Author Hometown: Berkley, CA