First published 1993
John Deane grows up in the Pennsylvania countryside near Gettysburg as tensions mount before the Civil War. He sees slave hunters pursue escaped people through his community and watches John Brown's raid unfold at Harper's Ferry. When war erupts, enemy forces occupy the Deane family home. John watches soldiers tear apart family documents and precious belongings to build defensive barriers. His sisters navigate their own romantic entanglements while John experiences his first tentative love. The conflict surrounds him with vivid battle scenes that bring the war's brutal reality into sharp focus. Through John's sensitive perspective, the story captures both the grand sweep of national upheaval and the intimate costs of war on one family's daily life.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Pennsylvania
Period: Civil War
262 pages · Hardcover · Houghton Mifflin