The March: E. Doctorow

March is set towards the end of the American Civil War and follows General Sherman`s epic march with sixty thousand Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, one of the major manoeuvres to bring the war to its conclusion. The March ranges widely over a diverse set of characters - each of whom is brilliantly realised - so that we see the war through the eyes of both white-skinned Pearl (daughter of slave and slave owner) and General Sherman; a deserting confederate who sets himself up as a photographer; a ruthless army surgeon who enjoys his reputation as an amputator; and the two brothers of a brutal slave owner who find themselves in uniforms facing Sherman`s forces.

Doctorow`s narrative brilliantly blends the intimate and the epic, sweeping the reader along the route of Sherman`s notorious march and making us care deeply about each individual`s fate.