RED MOON AT SHARPSBURG

Three promises precede the birth of India Moody in 1848, and everything that follows in India’s wartime experience comes from those promises—two kept, one broken. The Civil War comes to India’s home in the Shenandoah Valley and, by its end, northern Virginia is a charred and desolate land, and India’s life is forever changed. India is a memorable character, so well drawn she seems to leap from the pages of the period letters and diaries upon which Wells based her tale. She studies chemistry with Emory Trimble, witnesses the battle of Antietam and dreams of studying science at Oberlin College. Thorough research is neatly woven into this epic tale of war, romance, faith, science and promise without ever overwhelming the telling, and India is a feisty heroine making her way into a new world forged by the fires of war. A grand historical novel of exceptional scale and depth. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12+)