Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War
Originally published as In the Lion’s DenWinner of the San Diego Book Award for Best Historical Fiction Director’s Mention, Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction 1861: The war that’s been brewing for a decade has exploded, pitting North against South. Fearing that England will support...
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Originally published as In the Lion’s DenWinner of the San Diego Book Award for Best Historical Fiction Director’s Mention, Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction 1861: The war that’s been brewing for a decade has exploded, pitting North against South. Fearing that England will support the Confederate cause, President Lincoln sends Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, to London. But when Charles arrives, accompanied by his son Henry, he discovers that the English are already building warships for the South. As Charles embarks on a high-stakes game of espionage and diplomacy, Henry reconnects with his college friend Baxter Sams, a Southerner who has fallen in love with Englishwoman Julia Birch. Julia’s family reviles Americans, leaving Baxter torn between his love for Julia, his friendship with Henry, and his obligations to his own family, who entreat him to run medical supplies across the blockade to help the Confederacy. As tensions mount, irrevocable choices are made—igniting a moment when history could have changed forever.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780345524553 (0345524551)
Publish date: March 29th 2011
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages no: 336
Edition language: English
This is a very interesting Civil War novel, which, unlike most other novels of the genre which tend to focus on the battlefronts, sheds light on the diplomatic side of the war, vis-a-vis Great Britain and the U.S. The author fleshes out with the skill of a Seurat pointillist, the real-life characte...
To be totally honest with the reader of this review, I was fascinated by the background history of this story. The writing style of the author, not so much. The book did give me enough interest to further review non-fiction work of this topic. The writing of this book was just off to me and I can't ...