Five top Civil War historical fiction titles

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five "Civil War historical fiction books [that] provide some insight into what it was like for people at the time—to choose sides, to unlearn their own prejudices and misconceptions, and to question everything about what it means to be an American." One entry on the list:

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

When two brothers seek refuge on a farm in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, they kindle an unexpected friendship with the couple who take them in. The brothers save up money in the hopes of going North to reunite with their mother, even as they bring comfort to the grieving couple who lost their only son in the war. A pair of Confederate soldiers, meanwhile, take their tryst to the local woods. When their forbidden romance is discovered, the chaos and repercussions unleashed rock the entire community to its core.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue