Portrait of an Unseen Woman: A Novel of Annie Shaw
A Novel of Annie Shaw
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Description
Awards & Endorsements
Author(s)
Roberta Harold
Related Titles
Portrait of an Unseen Woman: A Novel of Annie Shaw
A Novel of Annie Shaw
Rootstock Publishing
General Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction
About the Book
In 1892 Paris, Annie Shaw longs to escape the confining American Colony where she's lived for twenty years as a quiet Civil War widow. As a budding artist, she is ready to immerse herself in the Belle Epoque's vibrant life of art, literature, and music. But when her domineering mother-in-law 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 her life on her own terms.
A reimagining of the life of which there was no historical record, Portrait of an Unseen Woman: A Novel of Annie Shaw is a bold historical novel that confronts the constricting Victorian norms of the late nineteenth century.
Roberta Harold
Roberta Harold, author of Portrait of an Unseen Woman, is also the author of two historical mysteries, Heron Island and Murdered Sleep. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland, educated at convent schools there, and emigrated to the Washington, DC area with her family in 1965. Admitted with the second class of women to Princeton University in 1970, she graduated with the first in 1973 and went to medical school for a year and a half before admitting that she should have been an English major. This she eventually remedied with a master’s degree from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English in 2001.
Moving to Vermont in 1977, she stumbled into a twenty-plus year career in community and economic development which included a stint as state director of USDA Rural Development for Vermont, New Hampshire, and for a time the Virgin Islands. She was appointed director of economic development in the first term of Vermont’s first woman governor, Madeleine Kunin, and later worked as an independent strategy consultant for small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
She won the Bread Loaf School of English poetry prize in 1999 and was first runner-up in 2002 in Seven Days' emerging writers short story contest. Heron Island, the first in the Dade Wyatt historical mystery series, was a Finalist in the Legacy Fiction awards of the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) and its sequel, Murdered Sleep, won the IPNE 2015 Genre Fiction award.
She has acted in community theater productions for many years. Favorite roles include Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Ouiser Boudreau in Steel Magnolias, and Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor. She sings in the soprano section of Rock City, the rock’n’soul chorus of Barre, Vermont. A member since 1978 of The Mother of All Book Groups, founded in 1972, and a founding member of the Bardolators, a Shakespeare d
Current Licenses
World Wide Rights Available
Awards & Endorsements
Award
Bronze Medal, Historical Literary Fiction, Book of the Year Award from The Coffee Pot Book Club
Praise
“An engaging, moving and witty novel, filled with fascinating characters and a vivid sense of the exuberant, risk-taking artistic world of late nineteenth century Paris. Annie Shaw is an appealing character, honestly and lovingly drawn, in her yearning for a freer and more creative life, beyond her role as faithful Civil War widow, sister, aunt and daughter-in-law. As Annie starts to discover her own path toward self-expression and love, she offers crucial support for those around her who break away from society’s restraints of race, gender, and sexuality.”
—Harriet S. Chessman, author of "Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper"
Praise
"In Harold’s tender, frothy, and witty novel, populated by an eclectic group of Bohemian artists, Paris itself occupies a prominent role...Through acerbic social commentary and biting dialogue, the author takes readers on entertaining tours of artists’ studios and one or two dens of inequity. Elaborate descriptions of the fashions, foods, and lifestyles that made Paris the center of the arts and social rebelliousness of the era are peppered throughout, along with thought-provoking pre– and post–Civil War historical tidbits. Intriguing and enjoyable, with an engaging female protagonist.”
—Kirkus Reviews