In the summer of 1853, in Lafayette City, Louisiana, 11-year-old Elias Abrams loses his mother to yellow fever. Grief-stricken and alone, he becomes embroiled in the street life of New Orleans. After Elias is falsely accused of a crime, and in order to escape arrest, he enlists in the Third Louisiana Regiment, where 3,000 other Jews will ultimately fight for the Confederacy. Before long, though, Elias' past catches up with him, and he realizes that he must face his demons, or lose the woman he loves.
Based on the little-known fact that 3,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Confederacy during our Civil War, Melman's novel tells the story of Elias Abrams, a young Jew alone in New Orleans who enlists in a Louisiana regiment after being accused of a serious crime. The story is in the style and spirit of COLD MOUNTAIN, though often coarser. At the center is Abrams's passion for a girl he's never met, who wrote a letter "to a soldier." Daniel Oreskes's Southern accents wander around the map a good deal, but they are suitably atmospheric, and unlikely to discourage anyone with a taste for this kind of adventure/romance in which the gore is red, the language is blue, and the grit is the size of gravel. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Peter Charles Melman was raised in Louisiana, where he earned his doctorate in Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He currently teaches English at Hunter College High School in New York, and lives in Brooklyn.
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