The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War - Softcover

Howard Bahr is the author of four novels: The Black Flower (1997), The Year of Jubilo (2000), The Judas Field (2006), and Pelican Road (2008). A native of Meridian, Mississippi, he served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War and worked for several years as a railroad yard clerk and brakeman. From 1982 to 1993, Bahr was curator of Rowan Oak, the William Faulkner homestead and museum in Oxford, Mississippi. His last post was as writer-in-residence at Belhaven University.
 

“I recommend it highly.” —Shelby Foote, author of the Civil War Trilogy
 
“Bold . . . a deeply moral book . . . of startling originality . . . Bahr succeeds in capturing the pointlessness of war.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Impressive . . . [Bahr’s] convincing evocation of the private soldiers’ harrowing lot puts his work squarely—and not undeservedly—in [Stephen] Crane’s tradition.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
 
“A memorable story of war at its most emotional and painful . . . Bahr’s blend of historical fact with gut-wrenching emotion has produced a riveting novel of the Civil War, a frighteningly realistic portrait of men and women caught in an awfulness beyond their control.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
“Bahr makes an impressive debut with a haunting tale of a brief but bloody encounter on the road to Nashville.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“Meticulously accurate, with historical detail woven into every page. Superbly researched . . . The emotions of those involved in the brutal conflict are artfully conveyed. . . . This is an impressive first novel.” —Historical Novel Society
 
“The senseless agony of armed conflict is expertly evoked in this elegiac Civil War novel. . . . The mournful tone of the narrative serves to underscore the powerful drama of this harrowing tale.”—Booklist
 
“I finished it in one long draught, thinking as I read of Crane, Hemingway, Mailer, and Faulkner . . . but realizing at the end it was altogether original.” —Ernest B. Furguson, author of Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War