Under the Gallus Frame

ISBN: 1614342539

Author: Matule, Darlene

Condition: New

About the Author Author Darlene Matule, a Montana native, was 44 years old when, while sitting in a Croatian farmer's kitchen drinking homemade sljivovica and eating bread fresh from the wood stove in the corner, she had the thought... "What if?"   Under the Gallus Frame  is the result of Darlene's imaginative  journey from then Yugoslavia to Butte, Montana.    Matule lives in the Northwest with her husband Steve where she is putting the final touches on the sequel to her saga. Product Description Under the Gallus Frame is the story of Marija, who is forced to leave her sweetheart Gus in Croatia in 1889 to marry a selfish, violent man in the rough-and-ready mining town of Butte, Montana. She transforms herself from an illiterate immigrant to owner, with a re-emerged Gus, of a thriving business and Matriarch of the Bartolji family. Her four children become leaders in The Company, The Miners' Union, The Church - and a hopeless drunk. From the Back Cover In 1889, to save his honor, seventeen-year-old Ljubica's selfish father forces her to journey from Croatia to Butte, Montana, and marry forty-year-old Vik Bartolji whose cruelty not only affects her life but her name, as he changes it to Marija.  She refuses to satisfy Vik's lust before their marriage and sets the pace for their fiery relationship in a town called The Richest Hill on Earth where men deemed Copper Kings make vast fortunes from mining the rich ore hidden beneath the gallus frames, triangles of steel that dotted the hills, drawing money out of Butte on the back of thousands of miners who work underground in horrendous conditions.   While Vik finds his pleasure in the arms of a brothel madam, Marija educates herself and finds love, wealth and social status with her second husband.  She reins as Matriarch of her family.  Her children become leaders in The Company, The Miners' Union, and The Church. Like Butte, where the copper and zinc mined from the miles of tunnels beneath the city are melded together to become a stronger metal--brass--Marija and her family weather multiple hardships and merge from the crucible of adversity, stronger than ever before, though marked by their diverse experiences.