Savannah

Name: Savannah
Rating: 4.2 (508 reviews)

by John Jakes

First published 2004

Amazon

4.2(508)

Georgia, 1864. As William Tecumseh Sherman’s army advances from Atlanta towards Savannah, widow Sara Lester and her twelve-year-old daughter Hattie struggle to protect their rice plantation and the people whose lives are tied to it. The march destroys the assumptions that sustained plantation authority while opening uncertain possibilities for formerly enslaved families.

Hattie’s determination brings her into direct conflict with Sherman as soldiers, reporters, local officials and displaced civilians converge on the city. When Savannah is presented to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift, the phrase conceals the destruction, emancipation and personal loss behind the campaign. The novel combines wartime adventure with a family story about courage and moral change during the Confederacy’s collapse.