Easter weekend, 1955, and Abraham Lincoln finds himself in Evanston, Illinois, mysteriously transported from 1865 at the height of the Civil War. Ninety years after his assassination, this wry, gaunt man, briefly relieved of the burdens of life in his own time, encounters a future society, idealized images of himself, reminiscences of friends and acquaintances long dead, and rare understanding from a woman very different from Mary Todd, his troubled wife. He returns to our nation’s highest office and the bloody conflicts of the War Between the States, a man restored by his experience of the future and determined—as ever—to preserve the Union. Writer and scholar Tony Wolk has been fascinated by Lincoln, “the essence of a good man,” for four decades. In this novel, Wolk skillfully blends history, fantasy, and the writer’s craft to bring Abraham Lincoln to life—Lincoln the man of flesh and blood as well as Lincoln the President. Readers emerge from a mesmerizing read with the sense of having been in Lincoln’s head and in his skin. Henceforth, references to Abraham Lincoln have a personal resonance: “The Father of Us All” is no longer a stranger.
Praise for A Novel Life
Many wonderful things have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but never anything like this poignant, pixilated tale of the past turning to the future and the future to the past.
— Ursula Le Guin, author of Gifts
