For two decades author Mary Casanova had been haunted by an account about life in Minnesota in the early 1900's. "A prostitute was found one morning in the snow" dead, frozen. "As a joke someone stood her body up in the corner at the start of a council meeting. This allegedly caused a stir. What it churned in [Mary Casanova] was a deep desire to understand and give a voice to this woman's life and death. Perhaps to avenge it." Told beautifully through the eyes of the woman's fictional daughter, Sadie Rose, the story details life in the frozen north amidst the many challenges of the early twentieth century - prohibition, women's suffrage, big business versus ecology, women's rights, etc. It also tenderly examines familial ties, mental illness, and the importance of being true to oneself.
"Passing laws doesn't change people's behavior."
"Only when ordinary people speak up and demand their rights do things change."
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