Mrs. Victoria Buys A Brothel

By (author): Talhí Briones

1865, United States-It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

AUTHOR

Talhí Briones

Talhí was born in Chile and grew up in Montréal. Writer, artist, and graphic designer, she has many projects behind and even more in front of her. Her first novel, Hieroglyphs – The Celestial Conspiracies, was published in French by Québec-Amérique in 2018. It’s an epic fantasy retelling of Exodus, where mythologies mix in ancient Egypt. She’s the artist and the co-author behind Emmanuel Just Wants to Die (published in French by Glénat Québec, 2020), a comic about depression and cute body-snatching ghosts.

Talhí does her best to make her works diverse, trying to create the things she wanted to read when she was younger. She works at home with two birds who keep walking over the keyboard and add typos when she tries to write.


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Details

Dimensions:

325 Pages
9in * 6in * 1in
1.25lb

Published:

May 20, 2025

Publisher:

Renaissance Press

ISBN:

9781990086854

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Romance / Historical / American

Language:

eng

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