The March: A Novel

Doctorow's new novel 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.

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La historia de un líder carismático y su camino hacia las arcas de la Historia. En 1861 estalló en Estados Unidos la Guerra de Secesión, que enfrentó a los estados del Sur, confederados, con los del Norte, unionistas. Tres años después, tras quemar Atlanta, el general unionista Sherman inició la marcha hacia el mar. Un ejército de 60.000 soldados, seguidos por una multitud de esclavos negros liberados, atravesó el estado de Georgia hasta las Carolinas. Esclavistas, sirvientes, prisioneros y advenedizos se sumaron a la travesía; todo un mundo flotante caminando hacia el futuro, hacia la libertad.