by Joanna Higgins
The place is Andersonville, the most infamous of the Civil War's Confederate prison camps. The time is 1864, a moment when politics has halted all prisoner exchanges. That leaves captured Union soldiers with little more than rumors and delusional hopes to ease the chronic misery and the prospect of death from disease, deprivation or dementia. This remarkable debut novel, laced with historical detail, delivers a riveting portrait of the mental and physical toll of that gruesome internment.
Higgins convincingly finds her way into the mind of the young soldier Ira Cahill Stevens. Propelled initially by hopes of exchange, Stevens stokes his will to survive on escape fantasies raw hatred and, finally, love. In this grim place, he grows to understand that human goodness wears no particular uniform. Though Higgins's taut prose is unsparing in its cruel detail, she ultimately delivers a message of hope. (Permanent, $24)
Bottom Line: Powerful tale of Civil War imprisonment
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