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Robert
Hicks author of The Widow of the South returns
to the past in a novel of astonishing beauty: A SEPARATE
COUNTRY.
Set
in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, A
SEPARATE COUNTRY is a novel based on the incredible
life of John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial
generals of the Confederate Army - and one of its
most tragic figures. Robert E. Lee promoted him to
major general after the battle of Antietam. But the
Civil War would mark him forever. At Gettysburg, he
lost the use of his left arm. At the Battle of Chickamauga,
his right leg was amputated. Starting fresh after
the war, he married Anna Marie Hennen and fathered
11 children with her, inculding three sets of twins.
But fate had other plans. Crippled by his war wounds
and defeat, ravaged by financial misfortune, Hood
had one last foe to battle: Yellow Fever. A SEPARATE
COUNTRY is the heartrending story of a decent and
good man who struggled with his inability to admit
his failures - and the story of those who taught him
to love, and to be loved, and transformed him. A September,
2009 hardcover.
Update
A
Separate Country has debuted at #35 on the New
York Times Bestseller List
A
Separate Country Tour: March 18 – 22, 2010
Join
your host Robert Hicks, author of the Widow of
the South in New Orleans as your re-visit the
places that inspired his latest book: A Separate Country.
More
Information.
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REVIEWS
Publishers
Weekly
Hicks follows his bestselling The Widow of the South with
the grand, ripped-from-the-dusty-archives epic of Confederate
general John Bell Hood. The story begins with Hood, on
his deathbed with yellow fever, dispersing a stack of
papers to former war nemesis Eli Griffin, urging him to
publish the general's “secret memoir.” Hood's
story picks up in 1878 as he, nearly broke, reflects on
the past 10 years' dwindling fortunes. Now, with an artificial
leg, a bum arm and nearly no money, he and his wife, Anna
Marie, live in diminished circumstances in New Orleans.
Over time, their once passionate relationship grows mundane
as Hood “watched the years wrench devilry and lust
and joy from her face.” Things are also complicated
by the violent death of Anna Marie's best friend and the
reappearance of former comrade Sebastien Lemerle, who
holds a nasty secret he holds about Hood's past. Meanwhile,
Hood's marriage and business failures pale in comparison
to the yellow fever epidemic that decimates the area.
Hicks's stunning narrative volleys between Hood, Anna
Marie and Eli, each offering variety and texture to a
story saturated in Southern gallantry and rich American
history.
Kirkus
Reviews
A tale of mixed-up foolscap, dark secrets, a dwarf and
a wharf. Tennessee-based Hicks, who debuted with a Civil
War novel (The Widow of the South, 2005), ventures here
into Reconstruction-era New Orleans. His hero is real-life
Confederate warrior John Bell Hood (for whom the Texas
fort is named), who settled after the Cause was Lost in
New Orleans, where he had 11 children and otherwise kept
busy. In Hicks' tense and tasty account, one of Hood's
occupations is fending off the plague of unwanted characters
who seek in one way or another to capitalize on his wartime
renown. One is a mysterious chap named Sebastien Lemerle,
a companion at arms from antebellum days. "In Texas
I was young," Hood remembers. "I wanted to fight.
I wanted to fight Comanche. Sebastien Lemerle and his
squad came with me." For his sins, Hood gets his
wish, and plenty more fights to boot. Somewhere along
the way he also earns the continued attentions of Lemerle,
who comes sniffing around Hood's door all these years
after the Civil War has ended. Not far behind is a "little
man" named Rintrah who has his fingers in many a
pie, as well as a priest decidedly not on priestly business
and a few assorted members of the proto-KKK, to say nothing
of the foppish Beauregard, gone from Civil War hero to
New Orleans wheeler-dealer and publisher, in whose hands
is a manuscript of Hood's that Hood does not wish to be
there. Thus the plot thickens, and Hicks spins a taut
tale, told in many voices, of tangled webs, vengeance
and other unfinished business. Expertly written, with
plenty of unexpected twists-a pleasure for Civil War buffs,
but also for fans of literary mysteries.
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