Book Recommendation: FATES AND TRAITORS
“He had nowhere to go but into the arms of his vengeful enemies. Supporting his weight on the crutch, he made his way to the door, wincing as a shower of sparks flew too close before his face. The crutch slipped from beneath his outstretched arm as he reached for the latch, but he let it fall. He would face the soldiers standing, defiant and proud on his own two feet.” Jennifer Chiaverini, FATES AND TRAITORS
Publisher Synopsis:
The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker returns with a riveting work of historical fiction following the notorious John Wilkes Booth and the four women who kept his perilous confidence.
John Wilkes Booth, the mercurial son of an acclaimed British stage actor and a Covent Garden flower girl, committed one of the most notorious acts in American history—the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The subject of more than a century of scholarship, speculation, and even obsession, Booth is often portrayed as a shadowy figure, a violent loner whose single murderous act made him the most hated man in America. Lost to history until now is the story of the four women whom he loved and who loved him in return: Mary Ann, the steadfast matriarch of the Booth family; Asia, his loyal sister and confidante; Lucy Lambert Hale, the senator’s daughter who adored Booth yet tragically misunderstood the intensity of his wrath; and Mary Surratt, the Confederate widow entrusted with the secrets of his vengeful plot.
Fates and Traitors brings to life pivotal actors—some willing, others unwitting—who made an indelible mark on the history of our nation. Chiaverini portrays not just a soul in turmoil but a country at the precipice of immense change.
My Recommendation:
It takes a writer of great skill to animate a man as notorious as John Wilkes Booth into a character so fascinating the reader can scarcely look away; Chiaverini has succeeded. I admit, I was not keen on reading a book about Booth, but Chiaverini’s use of the women around him to tell his story was brilliant.
Booth’s parents, his siblings, his love interests, and coconspirators are a cast like no other. Viewed from the present day, their bad choices clearly and obviously set them on a path of destruction, but Chiaverini demonstrates how such errors were made in their present time. She does not romanticize the traitors, and is unflinching in her portrayal of them.
If many readers are like me, my knowledge of what happened ended with the assassination of Lincoln. The chapters following the terrible deed are every bit as shocking as those that preceded it. Though FATES AND TRAITORS is a novel, fans of the work of Erik Larson and Laura Hillenbrand will love how this story reveals so much more history than we thought we knew.
Breathless pacing, historical figures of enormous influence, and unspeakable acts of treason make FATES AND TRAITORS one of the most riveting works of historical fiction I’ve read so far this year. I give it my highest recommendation.
Have you read this or any of Chiaverini’s previous novels? This is my first, but it will not be my last.
