March

Geraldine Brooks · b. 1955 · Australia

Why it matters

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women sent its father figure off to war and never followed him there; Brooks does, imagining his Civil War service as Union chaplain confronting slavery and carnage his family never saw. A Pulitzer winner that fills in a beloved novel's carefully avoided horror.

At a glance

Alternating timeline and unflinching war content sit within otherwise clear, controlled prose.