BRATTLEBORO-In honor of Women's Fiction Day 2025, ByWay Books and More, 399 Canal St., hosts Montpelier novelist Roberta Harold on Sunday, June 8, from 2 to 3 p.m.
Harold is the author of two historical mystery novels, the IPNE award winning Heron Island and Murdered Sleep. At this event, Harold will read from her new novel, Portrait of an Unseen Woman: A Novel of Annie Shaw, published by Rootstock Publishing. Kirkus Reviews describes Portrait as "...intriguing and enjoyable, with an engaging female protagonist."
Portrait of an Unseen Woman imagines the later life of Anna Kneeland Haggerty Shaw, a real-life woman known to history only as the widow of Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. The 1989 film Glory celebrated the heroism of Shaw and his regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, one of the first Black Union regiments of the Civil War, but made no mention of his marriage.
In 1892 Paris, in her mid-50s, Annie finally sheds her confining identity as a Civil War widow and immerses herself in the Belle Epoque's vibrant world of art, literature, and music. But when her late husband's domineering mother announces plans to move in next door and make Annie her permanent caregiver, Annie must choose between being responsible for others-her expected societal role-or living on her own terms.
"When I learned that the heroic colonel of the Civil War's first Black regiment, Robert Gould Shaw, had a wife, I decided to uncover as much of her life history as I could and imagine the rest," Harold said in a news release. "I hope readers see that, like Annie, their own strivings toward creative expression, however limited or tentative, and whatever their age and circumstances, are worth pursuing."
Questions and discourse are encouraged. For more information, contact proprietor Severia A. Drake at 802-490-8014, or visit bywaybooks.co.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.