The new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Year of Wonders.
An idealistic abolitionist, March has gone to serve the Union cause as chaplain to the Federal troops. But the war tests his faith not only in the Union - which he learns is also capable of acts of barbarism and racism - but in himself. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness in a Washington hospital, he must reassemble the shards of his shattered mind and body and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of what he has endured.
Taking inspiration from the real-life story of Louisa May Alcott's father - educator, activist and confidante of Emerson, Garrison and Thoreau - March spans the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South through the dark first year of the Civil War as the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats.
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.
