OUR LESSER ANGELS

Calland’s historical novel chronicles four strangers whose lives intersect at a prison camp for Confederate soldiers near the end of the Civil War.

In 1877, more than a decade after the conclusion of the Civil War, Lettie Waudell travels from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Elmira, New York, to unravel a mystery that haunts her: Why did her deceased husband, Archie Prentiss, have in his possession a ring clearly made for another woman? The other woman in question is Charlotte Ballarton, who met Archie, a Confederate soldier, while he was incarcerated at Elmira Civil War Prison Camp, a brutal place that subjected its inmates to “barbarous” and “inhumane treatment.” From the unusual connection between Archie and Charlotte (she was a committed abolitionist whose brother, Tim, had died at Antietam), the author spins a fascinating tale told in turns by four different characters, including Charlotte, Archie, John Jones (a fugitive slave who ends up in charge of burying dead Confederate soldiers at the prison camp), and Eli Stoddert (a farmer’s son and prison guard who becomes infatuated with Charlotte). With extraordinary subtlety, Calland captures the profound moral complexity of the war. Archie, a carpenter by trade, joins a war that was simply unavoidable for him—slavery was not an institution to which he was ideologically attached: “To be honest, I wasn’t real sure how I felt about it all. Never gave all that much thought to slavery, the right or wrong of it. It was just somethin’ I grew up with, like the smell of the pine forest or the snakes and mosquitos around Ashpole Swamp.” Charlotte’s rancor is not merely political or idealistic—she is torn apart by the death of the brother she adored. At the heart of this moving novel is the exploration of a remarkable emotional possibility: developing empathy for another who was formerly reviled. This is a stunning literary feat—intelligently composed and historically rigorous, the book leaves the reader haunted by the heights and depths of human nature.

An enthralling work that captures the moral murkiness of war.