Soldier's Heart: a novel

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"Michele Baker has crafted a haunting and intimate novel about the Civil War...A compelling read."
--Susan Breen, author of The Fiction Class and the mystery series, Maggie Dove

From award winning author Michele McKnight Baker comes a riveting story readers hail as "brilliant...a must-read...delicious... [Soldier's Heart] will grab you and hold on until its end. It will change you."

Junior Thompson, son of a freed slave and a free man, and Webbie Henderson, son of a wealthy family, cross a forbidden boundary between their properties and forge an unlikely friendship in the years that culminate in the Civil War. Young as they are, both must become the men of their families when their fathers are called to battle. When the war comes to their hometown of Carlisle and nearby Gettysburg, will they survive?

Readers experience the warfront with Robert Thompson, who disguises his race in order to fight; and all three Henderson brothers, whose leadership and love choices could cost them their families, and their lives. Readers get a rare inside view of the home front through the heroism of Sarai Thompson and Maggie Henderson, who must make agonizing sacrifices. An historically authentic, fast-paced, multicultural family saga, Soldier's Heart takes place over a fifteen-year period, culminating on April 9, 1865: Junior Thompson's twelfth birthday, and also the day General Lee surrenders, formally ending the Civil War. Though the victory of the war may be at hand, this unforgettable story reveals how the private battles of the heart rage on.

Soldier's Heart is inspired by the untold true story of the Thompsons, a black family, and the Hendersons, a white family, who lived as neighbors in Carlisle, PA. The author is their direct descendant.