The Better Angels of Our Nature » (Unabridged)

S. C. Gylanders spent seven years researching and writing The Better Angels of Our Nature; she traveled around the United States, visiting battlefields and sites where these historical events took place. She lives in London with her husband.

The first in a trilogy about the Civil War. On the eve of the Battle of Shiloh, General Sherman discovers what he believes to be a young boy dressed in an infantryman s uniform hiding in the woods. The soldier calls himself Jesse Davis, and claims he has come to serve the general. Sherman takes the boy under his wing, and begins to train him in the art of war. A quick learner, Jesse soon endears himself to Sherman and to others in the camp. But who really is this intriguing young person who has appeared from nowhere? It is not until others in Sherman s division begin to suspect that Jesse is not who he says he is that his identity is revealed. And the truth is more startling than anyone can imagine.

The Washington Post - Joanne Harris

The intricate details of military life flow as thick and fast as the blood that cakes the battleground, and her descriptions of 19th-century field surgery sound authentic and harrowing.