A Distant Flame

A Novel

Title Details

Pages: 328

Trim size: 6.000in x 9.000in

Formats

Paperback

Pub Date: 04/01/2011

ISBN: 9-780-8203-3786-9

List Price: $25.95

Related Subjects

FICTION / Historical

A Distant Flame

A Novel

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  • Description
  • Reviews

A young Confederate sharpshooter, Charlie Merrill, has already suffered many losses in his life, but he must find a way to endure—and to grow—if he is to survive the battles he and his fellow soldiers face in July 1864 at the gates of Atlanta. From the opening salvos on Rocky Face Ridge in northwest Georgia through the trials of Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain, Charlie faces the overwhelming force of the Union army and a growing uncertainty about his place in the war.

Framed by a story that finds the elderly Charlie giving a speech on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta, A Distant Flame portrays love, violence, and regret about wrong paths taken. With an attention to historical detail that brings the past powerfully to the present, Philip Lee Williams reveals Charlie’s journey of redemption from the Civil War’s fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.

The dramatic wartime events of A Distant Flame are written in the heart of Charlie Merrill—sharpshooter, lover, pilgrim, and friend of General Cleburne. This intense and memorable story of battlefield and hearth tells us that it is high time to assess and treasure the work of Philip Lee Williams.

—Marly Youmans, author of The Wolf Pit

A must-read . . . a moving and beautifully crafted story that leaves one with hope for humankind’s redemption.

Civil War Book Review

A powerful work that surely will become a classic of Civil War fiction.

—Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain

This strikingly fine novel leaves an indelible impression on the reader long after he puts it down. . . . As Stephen Crane once said about Civil War historical writing, ‘I want to be there.’ In A Distant Flame, Williams takes us there, and it’s a landscape that captures the heart.

—Robert J. Mrazek, author of Unholy Fire: A Novel of the Civil War

About the Author/Editor

PHILIP LEE WILLIAMS is the author of eleven books, including The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset and Crossing Wildcat Ridge. His novel A Distant Flame is winner of the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. Williams lives with his family near Athens, Georgia.