Book Reviews

Novel Notes

Originally published February 2017 · p. 37

Sister of Mine: A Novel. By Sabra Waldfogel. 471 pp., 2016, Lake Union Publishing, www. apub.com, $14.95 paperback. “When two Union soldiers stumble onto a plantation in northern Georgia on a warm May day in 1864, the last thing they expect is to see the Union flag flying high—or to be greeted by a group of freed slaves and their Jewish mistress.” So I read about this novel, three of whose features caught my eye. First, it’s set in north Georgia, near Cassville, when Sherman’s army is marching through. Second, the setting is the plantation owned by Mordecai Mannheim, not only a Jewish planter, but with his family the only Israelites in Cass County. Third, its author, Sabra Waldfogel, is an historian, having studied at Harvard and earned her Ph.D. in American history at the University of Minnesota. There are plenty of historical novels out there. These three elements combine to make this one something exceptional.

The Ones They Left Behind. By Antonio Elmalah. 2014, 21 Cent Imprints, Princeton NJ, $22.95 hardcover, $15 trade paperback. “A moving story of a Union Civil War veteran who makes an apparently quixotic journey through Georgia in 1867 reprising his march with Sherman’s army, this time in a quest for peace and reconciliation to knit a divided North and South into one nation again.” When James M. McPherson, the renowned historian, writes this back-cover statement for a novel, it’s notable. For this book Antonio Elmalah researched at the National Archives and Carlisle Barracks. He even has a Hal Jesperson map, “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” for his endcovers. Tempting Skies. By Michael J. Roueche. Book Three of the “Beyond the Wood “Series. 2016, 366 pp., Vesta House Publishing, www.vestahousepublishing.com, under 0 199 SKOWHEGAN RD, FAIRFIELD, ME 04937

Book Review Editor: From time to time we receive works of fiction set in the Civil War era and will occasionally recognize them.

$17.99 paperback. “The Rebels keep fighting— they are valiant soldiers. I’ve witnessed it, but I suspect….I’ve heard the South is bankrupt, financially and…morally. They’re just fighting a desperate struggle just to retain a few remaining slaves.” So declares Hank Gragg, a private in the 19th Indiana. No, answers Betsy. “It was Lincoln who sent soldiers to invade the South, when all Southerners wanted was their property rights.” What I like about Civil War novels is that they offer a forum for characters to argue about the causes and nature of the war in ways that would get the rest of us in trouble with the PC-bosses. Hank, Betsy and others engage in this one, Michael Roueche’s Tempting Skies, which is third in a series. The first title, Beyond the Wood, won the John Esten Cooke Fiction Award in 2012. It’s been given by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars to novelists who “portray characters and events dealing with the War Between the States, Confederate heritage, or

Southern history in a historically accurate fashion.”