The Widow of the South

 Book 46 of my 2021 Reading Challenge

The Widow of the South

by Robert Hicks

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2005

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. 

First Impressions/Judging a Book by Its Cover

I bought this book at a consignment shop.  Historical fiction is my favorite genre and the Civil War time period, like WWII, is one with many different stories and viewpoints to pull from.

The cover art is deliberately worn along the edges which adds to the "old" feel of the book, especially since I bought it as a used paperback.  Although the woman herself takes up the majority of the cover, her face is cut off at the top so we only see her from the nose down.

My Opinion

3 stars

I don't have sympathy for the cause but reading individual stories of Confederate soldiers, especially those who don't feel strongly about fighting, makes me think.  When the book was using first-person to show their thoughts, the Confederate and Union soldiers sounded the same in their priorities of getting through to get back home safely.

Something about the rhythm of the writing makes it seem older than it is.  There isn't a lot of "old-timey" or outdated vernacular so I can't really put my finger on why.  That probably shows the amount of research the author did because there were lots of little details and nothing felt out of place for the setting.

I read this really slowly because I'm in a bit of a reading slump and never had any trouble picking back up where I left off, even if it had been a few days since I read it.

The author's note at the end that included photos of the real McGavocks was a nice touch.

Quote From the Book

"I don't really know how long I was asleep. Days, a year maybe. Hard to tell. Made me wonder whether putting names to time made much of a difference anyway. What did it measure? Not how much life passes. Hello no. Your whole life can pas and be changed in a second or in a century. Don't matter."