James Lee Burke is known as one of America's premier crime
novelists, but here he successfully turns his hand to a tale set
during the American Civil War in the southern state of Louisiana.
That long and costly war itself however is never made the focus of
this tale - this is not a blood and guts adventure story but a
thoughtful exploration of the chaos and misery that war creates.
The characters are colourful, interesting and well-written, chief
among them the rebel soldier and eternal jester Willie Burke, who
is based on an ancestor of the author, the shockingly brutal slave
master Rufus Atkins and the abused but determined slave girl
Flower. The illegitimate daughter of a callous plantation owner,
Flower fights to improve her life with the help of abolitionist
Abigail Dowling and Willie, who teaches her to read. Emancipation
gives her freedom in the technical sense, but the hatreds that run
through Southern society have yet to be vanquished, and the spread
of peace and justice is agonisingly slow. Burke keeps the reader's
attention by focusing on plot and character development yet keeping
the story just on the edges of the great battles and events of the
time. This is a simple yet finely crafted story about the cost of
war and slavery soaked in the atmosphere of the period. (Kirkus UK)
An epic novel of the American Civil War from the bestselling author
of THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN. 'Brilliant. Its sense of place, of a
world recreated, is unerring. The story, as we would expect of
Burke, is enthralling' Bernard Cornwell, DAILY MAIL 'Classic Burke
. . . a fine read . . . the perfect introduction to that war, and
to slavery, and to Burke' OBSERVER Set mainly in Louisiana during
the years 1861-1868, this passionate novel of men, women and war
tells the story of the author's ancestor, Confederate soldier
Willie Burke, during the American Civil War. A classic Burke hero,
Willie is soon in conflict with his superiors. The characters who
people these pages, many of them based on real historical figures,
are as memorable as any Burke has created. Mulatto, Flower Jamison,
victim of terrible abuse who is determined to better herself;
Abigail Dowling, whose Unionist sympathies put her in constant
danger; Colonel Ira Jamison, rotten to his core yet who would rise
from a cesspit smelling of roses...
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