Title: The Jackal’s MistressAuthor: Chris BohjalianPublisher: DoubledayGenre: Historical Fiction{Thank you @prhaudio + @doubledaybooks for the #gifted copies. The audiobook is narrated by Marni Penning who elevated the author’s rich storytelling.}
Author Chris Bohjalian is back with a new novel, The Jackal’s Mistress, that is based on a much unknown piece of American history—a real life friendship across enemy lines. Characters that feel so real, like you can reach out and touch them. You’ll root for them and be deeply immersed in this story learning about a small piece of history during the Civil War. I read a lot of historical fiction, but so much of it is focused on WWII, so this was a welcome change.
Short Review: Boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence are put to the test when, Libby, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier finds a wounded Yankee officer.
Virginia, 1864 - Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand & his wife; all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between the North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.
And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy—but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health?This book had my heard racing in some places and sad in others—history is not always pretty. This historic story has a clear message and reminder about helping our fellow neighbor—something that is still relevant today.
Out today - 3/11 and comes with my recommendation!
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