Book
The Lawless
First published 1978
With the Civil War over, Gideon Kent attempts to honour his father’s promise to reunite a family scattered by death, estrangement and competing claims to the dynasty. Bringing his father’s widow back into the household reopens old conflicts and creates new dangers for relatives who hoped postwar prosperity would erase the past.
The novel unfolds during Reconstruction, when political rights, property and public authority are being renegotiated across the country. Industrial growth offers opportunity, but corruption and private revenge repeatedly undermine the Kents’ attempts at stability. National reunion and family reconciliation prove equally difficult when neither can be achieved without confronting the consequences of slavery and war.
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