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Jacob's Ladder

A Story of Virginia During the War

by Donald McCaig

ISBN: 0140282653
ISBN-13: 9780140282658
Format: Paperback

Summary

A historical novel that begins in 1934 when a WPA worker interviews a 90-year-old Virginian who discloses the dark secrets of a prominent family. The Civil War is the background for that story, which involves racial tension in many guises, beginning with a liaison between a wealthy teenage boy and a slave girl.

Customer Reviews

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Media Reviews

"A large, ambitious, carefully researched novel...with enough melodrama and subplots to fill several books."

   -- Kirkus

"Mr. McCaig rarely takes the reader inside the heads of his characters. What they do and say shows how they think and forces the reader to think as well, while the lively, and still relevant, action proceeds."    -- Phoebe-Lou Adams

   -- Atlantic Monthly

"Throughout, he binds his narrative with a meticulous respect for authenticity..."    -- David Walton

   -- New York Times Book Review

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published date: 1999
Size: 5.5 x 8.75 inches
Weight: 1.05 pounds

Publisher's Notes

Lauded by the "Virginia Quarterly" as "the best Civil War novel ever written, " "Jacob's Ladder" resonates with all the bitter glory and deep human shame of America's greatest war.

Other Editions

Hardcover - W W Norton & Co Inc (1998) - from $3.64
Paperback - Penguin USA (1999) - from $3.25

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Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War

McCaig, Donald

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