Is Florence “Florida” Baum a naive victim of circumstance, or a ruthless criminal? While Florida convinces herself she is the unlucky target of manipulation, Diosmary Sandoval knows a truth that Florida refuses to believe: that women are capable of immeasurable cruelty.

About the speakers:

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and These Women. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, Ivy taught creative writing at Studio 526 in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.

Katherine Pancol is one of the biggest publishing phenomena of recent years, and a worldwide success. Her novels have been translated in some thirty countries. La saga des Crocodiles, as well as la trilogie des Muchachas et Trois Baisers, have become classics. Her last novel La mariée portait des bottes jaunes was published in 2023.