Varina

Sooner or later, history asks, which side were you on?In his powerful new novel, Charles Frazier returns to the time and place ofCold Mountain, vividly bringing to life the chaos and devastation of the Civil WarHer marriage prospects limited, teenageVarinaHowell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expectsthe secure life of aMississippi landowner.Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varinaat the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American historyculpable regardless of her intentions.The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varinaand her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit.Intimate in its detailed observations of one womans tragic life and epic in its scope and power,Varinais a novel of an American war and its aftermath. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences.