Written in the form of letters from Owen Brown to a New York woman who is working on a history of his father John Brown. The largest part of the book deals with early days, family history and the Underground Railroad.

Brown moved around much more than you think of people moving in the mid-1800s. Ohio to North Elba, New York, (a remote town near Lake Placid and one of the towns on the Railroad) to Massachusetts and back and forth among his various farms. He was a failure at the various businesses he tried and was in debt most of the time. He was rabidly religious.

The "Old Man" fathered 20 children with two wives, but only 8 survived to adulthood. Toward the end of the novel which has been building and building up "Father's progression from activist to martyr", much of the family moves to Kansas where the Free-Soilers and the Pro-Slavery factions are each trying to get the Kansas Territory into their camps and the family turns violent, eagerly joining in the "Bleeding Kansas" battles and massacres.

The short Harper's Ferry portion of the book is at the end and doesn't deal with the eventual hanging of Brown and four of his men. His death was seen by many as a martyrdom and was another impetus toward the Civil War. ("John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in his grave....")

The book, of course, also details Owen's life from about the age of 8 when his mother dies, to his driving a wagon away from Harper's Ferry heading west (to California where he lived out his life as a virtual hermit.)

A somewhat long-winded book -- perhaps in keeping with letters and tomes of the last century when people had longer attention spans and weren't trying to convey their lives in 140 characters -- but beautifully written.

It was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1998.