Widow of the South -- Robert Hicks

I promised a review of this book a while back, but I have been quite busy, so it has taken me this long to deliver. So, on to the review....

Widow of the South was written by Robert Hicks last fall. I had a chance to go see him - that is to say I had tickets - but there was an ice storm the night before, and the roads were really slick so I couldn't make it.

Hicks obviously has a great passion for history, illustrated in this book. Loosely based on a true story, it is about a lady name Carrie McGavock, and jumps back and forth between her present life, and her life during the Civil War. The book starts in the McGavock graveyard - a place that is very dear to the elderly Carrie. Long ago, she allowed her house to be used as a field hospital in the Battle of Fredricksburg. She now, in the setting of the book, spends her days walking the rows of her cemetery, keeping diligent records with the help of her also aging former slave. In the opening pages of the book, an unexpected old man arrives during Carrie's daily walk through the graves. He brings back memories from long ago - thirty years ago - memories of a wounded soldier who left the makeshift hospital carrying a little more that he came with - carrying a piece of Carrie's heart. He asks for only one thing: a place in the cemetary, next to his fallen comrades.

This book captures the feeling of the post Civil War era within its pages. It is definitley worth reading. It just came out in paperback. There is also a very nice website dedicated to the book, with a lot of information about the factitious basis of the book.