First published 1973
Amantha Starr grows up beloved on her father's Kentucky plantation, never questioning her place in the world. When he dies, she learns a devastating truth: her mother was a slave, and now she will be sold into bondage. The revelation shatters everything she believed about herself. War erupts around her as she finds herself in New Orleans with Hamish Bond, a slave trader who becomes her protector. After the conflict ends, she marries Tobias Sears, a Union officer whose idealistic views clash with her complicated reality. Her past refuses to stay buried. Tobias cannot understand the woman he married, and Amantha struggles with a central question that torments her: who am I? Years pass before she can begin to answer. Warren crafts a story of identity and survival during America's most divided era, following one woman's journey from innocence through upheaval to self-knowledge.
Genres: romance, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: Kentucky, New Orleans
Period: American Civil War
Mass Market Paperback · Signet
Content warnings: slavery