Alice, or The Wild Girl

Set in 1856, "Alice, or The Wild Girl" explores the poignant relationship between a shipwrecked girl living ferally on a Pacific island and the man who brings her to early San Francisco. As she becomes a spectacle and symbol of the era's tangled perceptions of innocence, civilization, and savagery, the girl’s struggle for independence unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America. Rich in period detail and layered with thematic depth, the story examines profound questions about identity, control, and freedom in a vanished yet eerily familiar world.