'It is a wonderful novel about what war does to its participants – not only the soldiers, but the families pulled from the periphery onto the battlefield. Hicks has perfected the art of mixing fact and fiction, and turned the book into a sustained, profound meditation on what it means to live, to love and to die. Congratulations to Robert Hicks – he has written a moving and magnificent novel'
Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring
 

Tennessee, 1864. On a late autumn day, near a little town called Franklin, 10,000 men will soon lie dead or dying in a battle that will change many lives for ever. None will be more changed than Carrie McGavock, who finds her home taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a field hospital. Taking charge, she finds the courage to face up to the horrors around her and, in doing so, finds a cause.

Out on the battlefield, a tired young Southern soldier drops his guns and charges forward into Yankee territory, holding only the flag of his company’s colours. He survives and is brought to the hospital. Carrie recognizes something in him - a willingness to die - and decides on that day, in her house, she will not let him.

In the pain-filled days and weeks that follow, both find a form of mutual healing that neither thinks possible.

In this extraordinary debut novel based on a true story, Robert Hicks has written an epic novel of love and heroism set against the madness of the American Civil War.

Based on fact and meticulously researched, it is a moving novel. Robert Hicks is a superb storyteller.
Choice

This remarkable debut novel has an unflinching eye for detail and is at once a meditation on the futility of war and a paen to the power of he human spirit.
Choice

Written with lyrical beauty, arresting images as well as a compelling storyline
People

'A sleeping giant'
USA Today

A wonderful read. Blends the historical and the personal with a master stroyteller's skill
San Francisco Chronicle

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