The overlap between the two narratives is minimal and the focus on March, rather than his daughters, means that Brooks has the freedom to develop a unique narrative and voice. Brooks, already a popular writer, doesn’t seem to need Little Women‘s reflected glow, and it becomes apparent that Alcott’s book is a mere starting point to explore bigger themes. This immediately sets off alarm bells for this reviewer, as interpolations and extrapolations from popular novels meet with mixed success. March tells the story of the eponymous absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and his travails as a chaplain to Union troops during the war. The apology is appropriate, because with March, Brooks has not only joined the ranks of Civil War nuts, but with a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction under her belt, it just might be the making of her as a novelist. “Louisa May Alcott would be well pleased.In her afterword to March, Geraldine Brooks apologises to husband Tony Horwitz for her years of indifference to his civil war obsessions (well documented in his outstanding Confederates in the Attic). “Inspired… A disturbing, supple, and deeply satisfying story, put together with craft and care and imagery worthy of a poet.”- The Cleveland Plain Dealer “Wholly original…deeply engaging.”-Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor March has all the same virtues…casting a spell that lasts much longer than the reading of it.”-Karen Joy Fowler, The Washington Post World

“Harrowing and moving…In her previous book, Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks proved herself to be a wonderful novelist. “Honorable, elegant and true.”-John Freeman, The Wall Street Journal “A beautifully wrought story….Gripping….A taut plot, vivid characters and provocative issues.”-Heller McAlpin, Los Angeles Times Book Review “Brilliant…Geraldine Brooks’ new novel, March, is a very great book….Brooks has magnificently wielded the novelist’s license.”-Beth Kephart, Chicago Tribune A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. With “pitch-perfect writing” ( USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize–a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord, coming from Viking in October 2015įrom Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story “filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man” (Sue Monk Kidd).

March by geraldine brooks