Fallen Land

In this evocative Civil War novel, 17-year-old Callum is riding with a Gray Ghost–like Confederate colonel and his band of partisan rangers when they happen across a pregnant girl, Ava, who is Callum’s age. After saving her from being raped, Callum is forced to go on the run with the girl, fleeing bounty hunters who mistakenly think that he was responsible for the Colonel (as he is known) being killed. The $5,000 bounty on Callum was posted by the Colonel himself in the event of his death, and everyone in his outfit is looking for a payday. Unable to shake the bounty hunters, Callum and Ava think that their best bet is Union-occupied Atlanta. Finding the city burned and with the bounty hunters hot on their trail, Callum and Ava make a desperate last ride east to reach the coast. Along the way, they come across victims of Sherman’s scorched-earth policy, as well as those who take advantage of the chaos caused by war. This is a Civil War odyssey in the tradition of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain and Daniel Woodrell’s Woe to Live On, written in a vernacular that resurrects the era and fully brings alive Callum and Ava’s adventures on the road. At the center of the story is the couple’s growing love for each other, which powers the story to a suspenseful ending and a satisfying epilogue. (Jan.)