Homeland

by Barbara Hambly

First published 2009

Amazon

3.8(39)

During the American Civil War, Southern planter’s daughter Susanna Ashford and Cora Poole, living on an isolated Maine island, sustain their friendship through letters. Their loyalties are complicated: Susanna’s home lies amid Confederate territory and scarred battlefields, while Cora’s husband has chosen to fight for the South despite her Northern surroundings.

Their correspondence records shortages, occupation, bereavement, art, books and the work required to keep households functioning as the war redraws political and personal boundaries. By setting battlefield news beside domestic experience, the novel follows two women trying to preserve intellectual companionship and moral agency while the country—and the assumptions that shaped their lives—breaks apart.