How Long a Shadow

Set in 1903 Barre, Vermont, How Long a Shadow is a richly researched historical novel rooted in the immigrant labor movement of the American granite industry. As mal d’ america devastates stonecutters and union strikes divide the town, twenty-year-old Rosina Bottinelli seeks a life beyond the narrow expectations of marriage. Apprenticing as a midwife, she confronts the physical and moral stakes of women’ s work while a growing political rift between her unionist father and his capitalist brother threatens to fracture her family. Against a backdrop of labor unrest, public health crisis, and early suffrage activism, Rosina must decide where she stands— and what it will cost her to step out of the shadows and shape her own future.