When the Jessamine Grows
400 pages
|Published: 23 Jan 2024
|Editions
|Details
This edition
ISBN: 9781496740700
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Publisher: Kensington
Publication date: 23 January 2024
Description
From one of the most powerful and authentic voices in Southern fiction comes a historical novel with an unforgettable heroine—the extraordinary Joetta McBride, who defiantly opens her North Carolina home and farm to soldiers from both sides during the Civil War.
Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. The small farm she tends with her husband, Ennis, and their two sons provides all they need. Those who want to fight can fight, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral.
That opinion isn’t shared by Joetta’s father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glories of soldiering, and insists that owning land and slaves is the only measure of success. When fifteen-year-old Henry, impressed by his grandfather’s stories, runs off to volunteer, Joetta insists Ennis go and search for him.
Weeks pass without word from either father or son, though other soldiers pass the farm, growing ever gaunter and hungrier. Joetta offers food and shelter to all, regardless of which uniform they wear. Her actions are deemed treasonous by townsfolk and the Home Guard, but Joetta won’t be swayed. After all, the wealthy find ways to stay away from battle. Why should poor men suffer and die on their behalf?
Though shunned and struggling, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come, for a fractured nation and for Joetta and those she loves . . .
Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. The small farm she tends with her husband, Ennis, and their two sons provides all they need. Those who want to fight can fight, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral.
That opinion isn’t shared by Joetta’s father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glories of soldiering, and insists that owning land and slaves is the only measure of success. When fifteen-year-old Henry, impressed by his grandfather’s stories, runs off to volunteer, Joetta insists Ennis go and search for him.
Weeks pass without word from either father or son, though other soldiers pass the farm, growing ever gaunter and hungrier. Joetta offers food and shelter to all, regardless of which uniform they wear. Her actions are deemed treasonous by townsfolk and the Home Guard, but Joetta won’t be swayed. After all, the wealthy find ways to stay away from battle. Why should poor men suffer and die on their behalf?
Though shunned and struggling, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come, for a fractured nation and for Joetta and those she loves . . .
