The General and Julia

Ulysses S. Grant reflects on the crucial moments of his life as a husband,a fathera generaland a president while writing his memoirs and reckoning with his complicated legacy in this epic and intimate work of ΓÇ£superb historical fictionΓÇ¥ (Bookliststarred review). Barely able to walk and rendered mute by the cancer metastasizing in his throatUlysses S. Grant is scratching out wordshour after hourday after day. Desperate to complete his memoirs before his death so his family might have some financial security and he some redemptionGrant journeys back in time. He had once been the savior of the Unionthe general to whom Lee surrendered at Appomattoxa twice-elected president who fought for the civil rights of Black Americans and against the rising Ku Klux Klana plain farmer-turned-business magnate who lost everything to a Wall Street swindlera devoted husband to his wife Juliaand a loving father to four children. In this gorgeously rendered and moving novelGrant rises from the page in all of his contradictions and foibleshis failures and triumphs. Moving from blood-stained battlefields to Gilded Age New Yorkthe novel explores how GrantΓÇÖs own views on race and Reconstruction changed over time. ΓÇ£A gracefulmoving narrativeΓÇ¥ (Kirkus Reviewsstarred review) from historical fiction master Jon Clinchthis evocatively crafted novel breathes fresh life into an American icon.