"Confederates" is exceptional in the Keneally corpus for its American—namely, Civil War—setting, yet typical of an author who has continually challenged his abilities with diverse material….

"Confederates" reaffirms Mr. Keneally's mastery of narrative voice…. With "Confederates,"… it is almost necessary to remind oneself that the author is Australian, so naturally, intrinsically Southern is the narrative voice. Considering the recent glut of such idiom, which national politics has forced into general usage, Mr. Keneally's unobtrusive coloring of dialect and dialogue is all the more remarkable for its absence of false notes….

The idiom is more marked, of course, in a range of speaking characters that includes black slaves, poor Virginia farmers, Louisiana rivermen, Southern aristocrats and the military's rich regional mixture.

The action of the novel is confined to events on the Confederate side of the war during the summer of 1862 and to their effect on four...