“A Silver Moon for Rose” by Ruth Bass (E.P.I.C. Publishing, 408 pages, $19.95)

Family history plays a large part in the ways in which most of us define ourselves. Think how often politicians refer to their parents and grandparents who were immigrants or factory workers or small businessmen. Glancing back at those past stories roots us.

When we tell stories of our parents and grandparents we generally refer to the great arcs of their lives — how they persevered over childhood trauma or how they met their mates. We don’t usually have a feeling for the everyday patterns, the textures, of those lives.

Ruth Bass of Richmond is the exception to that rule. In a trilogy of novels based on the youth of her grandmother, Rosa Haskins, Bass recreates not merely the high drama of life in the 1880s but also the rich details.

Haskins grew up in Charlemont before moving to Greenfield with her husband, and her alter-ego Rose Hibbard lives in fictionalized versions of those towns.

In the first book, “Sarah’s Daughter,” Rose deals with the sudden accidental death of her mother and her father’s dark, alcoholic reaction to being a widower. In the second, “Rose,” the heroine establishes herself as a young adult and fulfills her dream of becoming a teacher.

In the newest novel, “A Silver Moon for Rose,” Rose marries her childhood sweetheart and adjusts to married life on a small dairy farm. She must abandon her career as a teacher; the law doesn’t allow married women to teach. She finds much to do on the farm, however, and enjoys married life and the prospect of children.

Rose is an admirable character — strong yet giving, generous yet assertive.

Her young husband, Newton, appreciates her intellectual curiosity as much as he cherishes her physical form.

Like the first two books in the trilogy, “Silver Moon” inserts details of 19th-century life that help the story sing. Rose’s hope chest includes all the linens and nightgowns of which a Victorian farm girl could dream, and her biggest wedding present is a sewing machine that will help her dress her home and family.

After getting married in the late spring, she spends much of the summer canning for the winter. She tends her garden but also harvests wild bounty such as berries and dandelion greens. And she loves her woodstove and running water.

“A Silver Moon for Rose” offers moments of drama; life on a farm is never without danger. It is most powerful, however, when it dwells on the tender small moments that together make up a full life. Ruth Bass writes about those moments eloquently. Rosa Haskins would be proud of her granddaughter.

“A Silver Moon for Rose” is available at the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield.

Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com.