But not by Catherine Leroux, who constructs in her form-bending twelve different histories for the unknown woman. Like musical variations repeating a theme, each Victoria meets her end only after Leroux resurrects her, replacing the anonymous circumstances of her death with a vivid re-imagining of her possible lives. And in doing so, becomes much more than the story of one unknown and unnamed woman: it becomes a celebration of the lives and legacies of unknown women everywhere. By turns elegiac, playful, poignant, and tragic, is an unforgettable book about the complexities of individual lives and the familiar ways in which they overlap.