Neverhome

Neverhome

Laird Hunt

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): An extraordinary novel about a wife who disguises herself as a man and goes off to fight in the Civil War.

She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause.

Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind. It is also a mystery story: why did Ash leave and her husband stay? Why can she not return? What will she have to go through to make it back home?

In gorgeous prose, Hunt's rebellious young heroine fights her way through history, and back home to her husband, and finally into our hearts.
 
Review:  It was interesting to read a story of a woman pretending to be a man fighting in the Civil War.  The author has a gift for writing descriptions, which I appreciated when reading about the setting, and was a little disturbed by when reading about the battles, which were terribly bloody, gory and awful.  The heroine was a brave and bold woman whom I admired through most of the novel, but the ending soured my opinion of her.

Rating: 4 stars