March

Geraldine Brooks

ISBN 10: 1439566690 ISBN 13: 9781439566695

Synopsis

From the author of the acclaimed YEAR OF WONDERS, a historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe, on the front lines of the American Civil War. Set during the American Civil War, MARCH tells the story of John March, known to us as the father away from his family of girls in LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott's classic American novel. In Brooks' telling, March emerges as an abolitionist and idealistic chaplain on the front lines of a war that tests his faith in himself and in the Union cause when he learns that his side, too, is capable of barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness in a Washington hospital, he must reassemble the shards of his tattered mind and body, and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of the ordeals he has been through. As Alcott drew on her real life sisters in shaping the characters of her little women, Brooks turned to the journals and letters of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May's father, an idealistic educator, animal rights exponent and abolitionist who was a friend and confidant of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The story spans the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South, through to the first year of the Civil War as the north reels under a series of unexpected defeats. Like her bestselling YEAR OF WONDERS, MARCH is a love story set in a time of catastrophe. It explores the passions between a man and a woman, the tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an ardently held belief.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"A very great book... It breathes new life into the historical fiction genre [and] honors the best of the imagination."
—Chicago Tribune

"A beautifully wrought story about how war dashes ideals, unhinges moral certainties and drives a wedge of bitter experience and unspeakable memories between husband and wife."
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Inspired... A disturbing, supple, and deeply satisfying story, put together with craft and care and imagery worthy of a poet."
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Louisa May Alcott would be well pleased."
—The Economist

About the Author

Geraldine Brooks is the author of Year of Wonders and the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Previously, Brooks was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, stationed in Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East.

About this edition

• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1439566690
• ISBN 13: 9781439566695
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 280