About this item
Highlights
- The Cutter's Widow is a heartrending novel, set in Saint Paul, Minnesota, against the backdrop of 1915 urban poverty.
- Author(s): Mary Desjarlais
- 272 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
About the Book
A highly charged historical novel about a young Irish widow in early twentieth century St. Paul, Minnesota, who gets caught up with illegal adoption and murderBook Synopsis
The Cutter's Widow is a heartrending novel, set in Saint Paul, Minnesota, against the backdrop of 1915 urban poverty. Ella Byrne is a young widow, gripped by grief and struggling to support herself. She becomes a milliner's apprentice, a baby broker and partners with a local pickpocket. Ultimately, she becomes the focus of attention in a murder investigation by one of Saint Paul's first female police officers. This is story of the devastations of grief and poverty and the quest to make a difference in the world.Review Quotes
"Even as it paints a vivid picture of life in Saint Paul, Minnesota, at the dawn of World War One, The Cutter's Widow tells a timeless story about what it is to be a woman in America. Among the streetcars, piecework factories and milliner shops, spirited female characters grapple with career, marriage, sexuality and reproductive freedom. In an era when a woman could be reported for smoking in public, the ladies of this novel band together, protecting one another and easing the way for children and men. The Cutter's Widow is entertaining and suspenseful, but it's also important. It reminds us that the issues women face today are not new, and the quiet strength of many is what carries us all."
-Ann Bauer, author of The Forever Marriage