March

By Geraldine Brooks

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

From the author of the acclaimed ‘Year of Wonders’ and ‘People of the Book’, a historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe, on the front lines of the American Civil War.

Set during the American Civil War, MARCH tells the story of John March, known to us as the father away from his family of girls in LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott’s classic American novel. In Brooks’ telling, March emerges as an abolitionist and idealistic chaplain on the front lines of a war that tests his faith in himself and in the Union cause when he learns that his side, too, is capable of barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness in a Washington hospital, he must reassemble the shards of his tattered mind and body, and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of the ordeals he has been through.

As Alcott drew on her real life sisters in shaping the characters of her little women, Brooks turned to the journals and letters of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May’s father, an idealistic educator, animal rights exponent and abolitionist who was a friend and confidant of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The story spans the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South, through to the first year of the Civil War as the north reels under a series of unexpected defeats.

Like her bestselling YEAR OF WONDERS, MARCH follows an unconventional love story. It explores the passions between a man and a woman, the tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an ardently held belief.

Format: Hardback
Release Date: 07 Mar 2005
Pages: 288
ISBN: 978-0-00-716586-5
Geraldine Brooks was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the USA she worked for eleven years on the Wall Street Journal, covering stories from some of the world’s most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia and the Middle East. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, was set during the English plague year of 1666, and became an international bestseller. She lives with her husband and son in rural Virginia and is currently a fellow at Harvard University.

Praise for March: -

'”March” is that rare species: a serious popular novel that is not afraid to grapple with big ideas.' Douglas Kennedy, Waterstones Books Quarterly -

”'Brooks's considerable historical research for 'March” - is pleasingly lightly worn…make[s] clever use of Little Women without suffocating beneath it.' Sophie Harrison, Sunday Times

Praise for A Year of Wonders: -

'A Year of Wonders is a staggering fictional debut that matches journalistic accumulation of detail to natural narrative flair.' Guardian -

‘A lyrically written and emotionally engaging novel.' Independent -

'The plot is gripping, I like the psychological subtlety of characters struggling with a shifting world, and it’s packed with historical detail.' Daily Mail -