This book is by and large sure handedly written, reflecting the maturity of Fleischman's skills. It has two problems, one of which readers are sure to notice: With sixteen narrators, each seeming to appear at random, it can be hard to keep track of who is doing what. The novella develops by having people drawn from afar to the actual battle; the narratives serve to portray this development well, showing how people came to be involved with each other in disparate parts of the country.

Each chapter has a woodcut image stamped at its beginning, with each stamp showing an image related to the chapter's speaker and showing the speaker's initials. Thus Carlotta King is symbolized by a washtub, Shem Suggs by a horse, Nathaniel Epp by a camera, and so on. These woodcuts help keep clear who is speaking, especially if, like Epp, the character...