CLARA IN A TIME OF WAR

The effect of the American Revolutionary War on soldiers’ wives, family members, and friends is at the heart of McGroarty’s debut novel.

In 1777, the second year of the conflict, Clara Fletcher is trying to do her best running her husband Malachi’s family farm in the Pennsylvania Colony while he’s off fighting. One day, her 12-year-old son, Jamie, bursts into the main house and tells her that an unconscious man is in their barn. After Clara nurses him back to health, the evasive man finally reveals himself to be a man named Declan O’Reilly, but his reasons for being in Chester County remain a secret. He soon becomes a key part of Clara and Jamie’s lives, causing Clara to question her relationship with the absent Malachi, who dragged her away from her beloved home in Philadelphia to a rural community. McGroarty’s narrative, though unevenly paced, takes its protagonist on an engaging path that conveys how earth-shattering events are felt on a local level. The novel shines in how it develops attachments between characters; the blossoming romance is, of course, central, but perhaps more compelling is the relationship between Clara and Naomi, her close friend that lives with them and displays no judgment regarding Clara’s situation. The insights into Declan’s mysterious war work and the uncertainty surrounding untrustworthy characters in Clara’s community may leave readers wanting to know more, but the overall level of detail is sufficient to drive the wider plot. The passages in which Clara briefly returns to Philadelphia are particularly exciting, but the entire novel has a keen sense of historical accuracy that will entice readers who have an interest in the Revolutionary War period.

A compassionate portrayal of a woman whose quiet life is thrown into turmoil.