**Washington Post Best 50 Books of the Year** This stunning Civil War novel from best-selling author Dennis McFarland brings us the journey of a nineteen-year-old private, abandoned by his comrades in the Wilderness, who is struggling to regain his voice, his identity, and his place in a world utterly changed by what he has experienced on the battlefield. In the winter of 1864, Summerfield Hayes, a pitcher for the famous Eckford Club, enlists in the Union army, leaving his sister, a schoolteacher, devastated and alone in their Brooklyn home. The siblings, who have lost both their parents, are unusually attached, and Hayes fears his untoward secret feelings for his sister. This rich backstory is intercut with scenes of his soul-altering hours on the march and at the front—the slaughter of barely grown young men who only days before whooped it up with him in a regimental ball game; his temporary deafness and disorientation after a shell blast; his fevered attempt to find safe haven after he has been deserted by his own comrades—and, later, in a Washington military hospital, where he finds himself mute and unable even to write his name. In this twilit realm, among the people he encounters—including a compassionate drug-addicted amputee, the ward matron who only appears to be his enemy, and the captain who is convinced that Hayes is faking his illness—is a gray-bearded eccentric who visits the ward daily and becomes Hayes’s strongest advocate: Walt Whitman. This timeless story, whose outcome hinges on friendships forged in crisis, reminds us that the injuries of war are manifold, and the healing goodness in the human soul runs deep and strong.

Nostalgia: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

MCFARLAND, Dennis

United States

Pantheon

In an incredible novel of devastating beauty, Martin Lambert must come to terms with the aftermath of his brother's suicide. Replaying sad melodies of his affluent youth, Martin embarks on a poignant journey through his family's haunted past--an unforgettable voyage of self-discovery that leads him from a childhood tainted by shocking parental abuse to a present clouded by alcoholic despair and desperate love - and, ultimately, toward a future of understanding, redemption and hope.

The Music Room: A Novel

Picador

Singing Boy: A Novel

On the way home from dinner, Malcolm Vaughn is shot and killed in front of his family - the victim of a random act of violence. Undone by shock and grief, his wife Sarah retreats from the world, postponing her return to work and their son Harry's return to school. Harry appears to have come through the loss unscathed, until a troubling incident reveals his profound pain and confusion. It will take time—and the support of Malcolm's best friend, Deckard, a Vietnam vet with troubles of his own—to help them understand the intracies of their sorrow.

Contemporary

Prince Edward: A Novel

Prince Edward is the profound story of Benjamin Rome, a ten-year-old boy living through the summer and fall of 1959 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. The stage for the massive resistance of local whites against nationwide desegregation, the county is a frightening and passionate place of shifting loyalties and ardent belief. It is here that Ben must learn to navigate not only his adolescence, but the politics of the time through his powerful family. A brilliant melding of historical record and personal experience, Dennis McFarland’s fifth novel is an affirmation of his devastating emotional insight and graceful narrative gifts.

Letter from Point Clear: A Novel

The older Owen siblings--Ellen and Morris--long ago left behind their gracious family home in Alabama in favor of the northeast. But when they learn that their wayward baby sister Bonnie has moved back into the old place with her new husband, a local evangelical preacher, they head home to perform a rescue. Upon their arrival, they find Bonnie reformed, and pregnant. But she hasn't yet broken the news to her husband that her brother Morris is gay, and the preacher soon begins a campaign to rescue him. 
With tremendous insight and empathy, Dennis McFarland "turns a comic showdown between New England skeptics and Bible Belt fundamentalists into an eloquent mediation on the many meanings of faith" (The Washington Post).

In an incredible novel of devastating beauty, Martin Lambert must come to terms with the aftermath of his brother's suicide. Replaying sad melodies of his affluent youth, Martin embarks on a poignant journey through his family's haunted past--an unforgettable voyage of self-discovery that leads him from a childhood tainted by shocking parental abuse to a present clouded by alcoholic despair and desperate love - and, ultimately, toward a future of understanding, redemption and hope.

the music room

Macmillan

**Winner of the Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in Civil War Fiction** **Washington Post Best 50 Books of the Year** Set during the Civil War, this stunning novel from bestselling author Dennis McFarland follows a nineteen-year-old private who is struggling to regain his identity in an overturned American landscape. In the winter of 1864, Summerfield Hayes, a pitcher for the famous Eckford Club, enlists in the Union army, leaving his beloved sister alone in their Brooklyn home. After a particularly grim experience on the battlefield—deserted by his comrades and suffering from deafness and disorientation—he attempts to make his way home but instead lands in a Washington military hospital, mute and unable even to write his name. Among the people he encounters in this twilit realm—including a compassionate drug-addicted amputee, the ward matron who only appears to be his enemy, and the captain who is convinced that Hayes is faking his illness—is a gray-bearded eccentric who visits the ward daily and becomes Hayes’s strongest advocate: Walt Whitman.

Nostalgia

Vintage

The Extraordinary New York Times Bestseller - Dennis Mcfarland author of A FACE AT THE WINDOW - The Music Room A Novel -- "A rare pleasure... magical... remarkable from its beginning to its surprising, satisfying end." -- The New York Times Book Review

Music Room

Literary

Harper-perennial

Separated from his wife and troubled by his brother's recent suicide, Martin Lambert tries to search his childhood memories for clues to the path his life has taken

The Music Room

Houghton/Mifflin

Francis Brimm visits his older sister Muriel at their childhood home in Florida, where he discovers a local murder and where both siblings are tormented by memories from the past. By the author of The Music Room. 35,000 first printing. National ad/promo. Tour.

School for the Blind

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

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Books by MCFARLAND, Dennis