The Women of the Copper Country
Author: Mary Doria Russell;
Genre: Historical fiction;
Format: Audiobook;
Narrator: Cassandra Campbell;
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (2019);
Rating: 
(4 / 5).
Ancestors of mine were copper miners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so I was excited to read this one. This was a character study of several people involved in a mine strike in Houghton County, Michigan in 1913. The main character was Annie Clements, a miner’s wife who did everything she could to help her community and make life better for the miners and their families.
The story was well-written and the characters were interesting. I got bogged down in the middle of the long strike and the struggles of the townsfolk and I skipped some of the second half, but it was an interesting story of early labor struggles and there were several side stories. For anyone interested in early labor union history of the United States, this would be a great read.
As many other listeners of the audiobook have mentioned, the narrator mispronounced several place names, which was distracting. Otherwise she did a good job, but shouldn’t you ask first before you try to pronounce names?
