Book description
Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post-Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.
Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Chenneville as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I loved this book as one of the most beautifully crafted and intimate inward and outward journeys of a character I have ever read.
John Chenneville is seriously wounded at the end of the Civil War and, upon his return to his beautiful Creole St. Louis home, learns that his beloved sister, baby, and husband have been viciously murdered. His relentless search takes him through Oklahoma tribal lands and war-ravaged Texas, where he is confronted with the worst and best of humanity.
The author’s descriptions of scenes and characters are stunning, and I was sent through an entire succession of…
I’ve been a huge fan of Paulette Jiles since her Civil War novel, Enemy Women, which is one of my favorites of all time.
Her quiet yet powerful writing style likely stems from her poetry background, and it serves her well as she has crafted some of the finest Western stories in recent decades—her News of the World is also excellent.
In this, Jiles’s most recent novel, the main character recovers from a severe wound sustained near the end of the Civil War and returns home to find that his beloved sister and her family have been murdered. Chenneville then…
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