Book Review: Home Again, A Civil War Novel

Home Again: A Civil War Novel, Michael Kenneth Smith
(Create Space, 2015), pb., 251 pp.
List $13.95 paperback

I was attracted to this book because it is primarily set in Tennessee and deals with the Battle of Shiloh. So, when I was offered a review copy I took it.

The story centers on two boys who live in Tennessee and meet each other once just before the outbreak of the War Between the States. One boy ends up fighting of the North and one for the South, and the story follows the adventures of each. This is a good narrative set up as you anticipate how the two might meet one another again. The author also strives for historical accuracy, and in places the story is compelling. However, in the end it was disappointing. The two boys do encounter one another towards the end of the story but never know it. And the story ends suddenly with too many loose ends still hanging. This made it less than satisfying to me as a story, though the author does well in communicating the horror of war.

It also needs more proofreading for typos.

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