The new novel from the number one bestselling author of Cold Mountain - a stunning portrait of the devastation left by the American Civil War, as seen through the eyes of a woman who played a part at the heart of it. With her marriage prospects ruined in the wake of her father's financial decline, teenage Varina Howell decides her best option is to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a Mississippi landowner.
When he instead pursues a career in politics and is appointed President of the Confederacy, it puts Varina at the white-hot centre of one of the darkest moments in American history - culpable regardless of her intentions. As the Confederacy prepares to surrender and she finds herself friendless and alone, Varina and her children escape Richmond. With her marriage in tatters and the country divided, they travel south, now fugitives with 'bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit'.
Barb takes care of the web orders here at Boffins, and is your contact for book club enquiries. She spends all her spare time curled up on the couch reading and for the last several years has reviewed books on the Afternoon Program on ABC radio Perth.
Charles Frazier returns to the territory of the Civil War and its aftermath in this new novel based on the life of Varina Howell who, still a teenager, married Jefferson Davis, a man more than twice her age who eventually became President of The Confederacy. Over the course of six Sundays in 1906 an elderly Varina tells her story to James Blake, the now middle-aged man who was once her adopted son until they were separated after the war. After the fall of the Confederacy Varina and her children flee Richmond and head south, hoping to reach Florida and from there Cuba. There are bounties on their heads and Varina and her family will pay a high price for being on the losing side of history.
Frazier’s portrayal of the feisty Varina sparkles, and the story of her flight through the rural south is both achingly beautiful and sad, as the consequences and destruction of the war are seen and met at every turn.
