Silver

by John Harrison Meyer

"Silver” is a historical novel set in the last year of the American Civil War and the first years of Reconstruction.Eddy Harrison, an adolescent in Civil War Virginia, yearns to be part of the great adventure just over the horizon from his family’s farm. His dreams of glory are he’s too young to enlist in the Confederate army. But soon enough, the war comes home, literally into his back yard. While the Union army pursues the retreating Confederates, Eddy finally gets the chance to play his part. But not alone. He is thrown into uneasy partnership with Lucy, an enslaved Black girl his own age, to safeguard some of Eddy’s family’s most prized possessions. Soon, both know, some of those possessions—Lucy herself and her family—won’t be the Harrison family’s property anymore. Eddy desperately tries to adjust to this disruption of what he’d believed was his God-ordained inheritance.No longer “the young massa,” Eddy grapples with his thwarted desires. Chief object of those desires is Lucy. She teaches him important lessons, not just about relations between Black and White as Reconstruction begins, but also between male and female. As everybody on the farm adjusts to their new circumstances, Eddy and Lucy find themselves mastering new skills, grasping new opportunities, and fumbling to figure out what each can learn from the other.This is the coming-of-age story of a White boy and a Black girl. An enslaved girl takes control of her destiny as the Old South collapses; a privileged boy adapts himself to his overturned world—and ultimately seeks out a radical alternative. The two teenagers at the heart of this story wrestle with both loss and newfound possibilities in their perilous transitions from child to adult—while navigating a society in turmoil.

280 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2023

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical fiction book about coming of age in Virginia at the end of the Civil War.