I read this because it is the "One County-One Book" selection this year for the county where I live. It is, however, an odd and uneven book. Not at all what one expects from the first chapter, which presents us with a determined young woman on the eve of the War Between the States insisting that she wants to become a doctor. The rest really isn't what you expect, given that beginning, which is good. But. . .it contains several elements I dislike. I'm not a big fan of historical novels, particularly those which include actual historical figures as characters--and I find it especially annoying when the novelist purports to tell us what those historical figures were thinking and feeling.

In the early part of the book, Oliveira includes far too much irrelevant historical detail; at times one feels she is simply unwilling to waste all the research she undoubtedly did, and has to cram it all in. (I would note, too, that--as is all to likely to happen with even the most meticulously researched historical novel--there is at least one jarringly anachronistic detail: "Danny Boy" was not written until 1910.) Once the action truly gets going the level of unnecessary detail does drop. And the exposition of just what the early days of the war were like at the front is fascinating and convincing. But somehow the underlying story just never seems to take off--I kept feeling Oliveira was telling us, not showing us, what is important and why.

Of course, this is a first novel. I'd read another by Oliveira--I think she has the ability and the skills, but she needs to be in better command of her forces as a whole.