When the War Is Over: A Novel
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
On a fine September morning in 1864, Lt. Marius Catto leads a platoon of Union army soldiers across a Kentucky meadow. A figure rises in the distance and takes aim. Catto dives to the ground, but it’s too late—the lead ball lodged in his shoulder will be his final souvenir of the war.
The shooter, a barefoot teenager named Thomas Martin, claims to be a Confederate soldier, but he wears no uniform and his rifle is older than most of Catto’s men. Taken prisoner and brought back to the garrison in Cincinnati, Martin is court-martialed as a guerrilla, found guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad.
From the bare facts of a long-forgotten incident in the final days of the Civil War, author Stephen Becker has crafted an indelible portrait of the military mindset that is as true today as it was one hundred fifty years ago. The story of Thomas Martin—a sixteen-year-old orphan whose only advocate was the man he shot—is a riveting tale of courage, loyalty, and the crushing inhumanity of life during wartime.
Stephen Becker
Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and André Malraux’s The Conquerors. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee’s surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).
Read more from Stephen Becker
A Covenant with Death: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rendezvous in Haiti: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Outcasts: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dog Tags: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Juice: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Season of the Stranger: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to When the War Is Over
Related ebooks
My Unconquerable Soul (Linley & Patrick #2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAchilles vs. Mecha-Hector Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Diary of a Drug Fiend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrum-Taps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grave for a Thief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shepherd Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hour of the Gate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Montana Abbott 1: The Texan From Montana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrusade: Book Three of The Paladin Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Debt to Delia: Regency Romance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Wyrms Tale (Book One of the Paracletus Saga) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue: The Color Of Magic Book One. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrethren of the Main Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParrot & Co Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeed the Crow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crow's Nest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Orange Propeller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFalhorne: Dark Dawn: Falhorne, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mark Of Cain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhite Apache 2: Warpath Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgatha H. and the Clockwork Princess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Castle: The Star of Aronna, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Castle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnight's Tale, The Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5BrittleTooth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath in the Andes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wages of Sin: Unquiet Spirits, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wizard Of Trope: A Sinking World Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJitterbug Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for When the War Is Over
3 ratings0 reviews