The Widow of the South

by: Robert Hicks

Published by: Warner Books

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

Occasionally there is a novel that defies adequate description. Those are the novels where a reviewer can only attempt to whet the reader's appetite and then simply allow them to discover the richness that exists within. The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks is just such a book.

Hicks has written a fictional account of the true story about the Civil War and Carrie Cradock. In Franklin, Tennessee, Carrie Cradock is mourning the loss of three of her children and is concerned about her husband's safety. The war is raging and Carrie and her slave, Mariah are left to run the plantation.

Canton Plantation, Carrie's home, is turned into a field hospital. During a brutal battle 9,000 Americans died and many others were wounded. The dead were buried on a neighboring plantation. Several years later, when the dead soldiers were in danger of being plowed under by the plantation's owner, Carrie reburied many in her own personal cemetery where she carefully tended the graves.

A wounded soldier, Zachariah Caldwell, is not of Carrie's class, yet he wakes in her feelings she didn't know she had. Their love for each other is not to be. And when they part, it is forever. But forever is not always the way life turns out. As an old woman, tending to her graves, the wounded soldier returns to ask a question.

Hicks has written a compelling, poignant and touching story of a woman whose circumstances shapes the person she will become. The characters are richly drawn and the disaster of war so real, it is frightening. In The Widow of the South, Hicks recreated a tragedy of American History that should not be forgotten.

Armchair Interviews says: The Widow of the South is a must read that will leave you breathless.