The picture of Victorian domestic perfection, Emma Smith is an ideal daughter, wife, and mother. However, gliding down marble halls to dinner parties eventually proves empty for Emma and one New Year’s Eve, in pursuit of becoming a “better” person, Emma resolves to have an affect on society. At her novelist husband’s suggestion she begins to write to Chance Woods, a man incarcerated at the local prison for the murder of his wife.

What begins as an innocent correspondence takes a startling and darkly erotic turn as Chance becomes an obsession for Emma; an obsession which will have momentous repercussions on Emma’s entire world.

The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s Vertigo. We hope they will enrich your experience of this seductive novel.