Balm

The elegantly crafted second novel from Perkins-Valdez (after Wench) captures the fierce energy, diversity, and suffering of Civil War%E2%80%93era Chicago. At its heart are three strangers%E2%80%94two black, one white%E2%80%94whose lives intersect after each arrives in their new hometown. Expecting to join her new husband in Chicago, Sadie Walker discovers that his sudden death has left her a wealthy widow. Her mourning is brief%E2%80%94her father arranged the unwelcome marriage%E2%80%94but then the voice of a recently slain Union soldier invades her mind. She uses his intercession to offer s%C3%A9ances for the bereaved, hiring a freed black woman named Madge as a servant. Descended from a line of skilled female herbalists, Madge is a gifted healer raised by an unloving mother and aunts. At one of Sadie's s%C3%A9ances she meets Hemp Harrison, a freed slave seeking his wife, Annie, who was sold to another owner before abolition. Though Madge and Hemp share a powerful attraction, Annie's unknown fate and the emotional scars from Madge's Tennessee childhood keep them apart. Perkins-Valdez moves gracefully among her three protagonists' viewpoints as they struggle to claim their authentic gifts and free themselves of the pain of their pasts. Her spare, lyrical voice is unsentimental yet compassionate, echoing Madge's belief that "in a land so devastated by death, the best healing balm is hope." (May)