Once Was Lost

by John Knox

Canon fire thunders across the southern fields and forests. The division between the Union and the Confederacy has exploded into war, drawing men from their towns, homes and families. It is a time beyond upheaval—it is a reckoning, a chaotic, civilizational soul-searching.

When their eldest son, Campbell, a Confederate captain, is killed, the MacFarlane family is thrust into the tragic heart of the conflict. His mother, Ava, despite her fierce intellect and fortitude that has maintained their household, struggles to keep her spirit intact under the weight of grief and the absence of her husband, Luke, now working as a doctor on the frontlines. Confronted nearly every hour with injury after grotesque injury, with the moans that so often fall to eerie silence, Luke himself tries to reconcile his faith and his duty to the cause with the seeming futility of it all. And as Ava's condition worsens at home, their two younger sons, Tristram and Daniel, himself nearing recruitment age, strike out to find their father amid a nation undergoing a crisis not unlike that of their parents—a nation coming apart.

Through its learned historical lens that is both personal and panoramic, through its constellation of vivid characters, insights and poetic verve, Once Was Lost reinvents the kind of sweeping, ambitious novel you don't see much of anymore, and offers a refreshing perspective on an event that remains all too relevant today.

486 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2024

About the author

John Knox is an emergency physician practicing in his hometown of Marietta, Georgia, where he lives with his wife, Eleanor. An active member of First Presbyterian Church, he enjoys travel, trivia, the trails of Kennesaw Mountain, days on Lake Allatoona, and time with his children and grandchildren. Once Was Lost is his first novel and is available in hardcover, paperback, and kindle editions on Amazon.

Reviews

[Rickstritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly enjoyable read. The writing style is silky smooth and engaging. The author paints a deep, descriptive picture with his word choice. Character development is outstanding, the reader knows each family member as an individual person, like a friend. And the background research of the period is impressive, the author transports you back to Marietta in the 1860s, what it was like to practice doctoring with the limitations of the day, what it was like to be a Southern family in the midst of the Civil War, and truly how a local community was devastated and torn apart by the terrible, yet necessary (?), conflict. Through these characters, the author challenges the reader to consider these big questions.

Excellent work! We hope we see more from this first-time author!!