04/03/2023
This pallid historical from Horan (Under the Wide and Starry Sky) surveys Abraham Lincoln’s life from the perspective of Portuguese immigrant Ana Ferreira, who spent years serving in the Lincoln family’s home in Springfield, Ill. In 1854, Mary Lincoln hires 12-year-old Ana to assist with housework and child care. Horan rushes through the years as Ana grows up around the Lincoln family, watching Abe run unsuccessfully for the Senate before eventually being elected president. Along the way, Ana falls for a reporter assigned to cover the politician. Much of the narrative covers familiar ground including Lincoln’s assassination and its aftermath, though Horan offers something original in a later section chronicling a historical 1908 riot in Springfield, which targeted the city’s Black citizens. Still, the lackluster retreading of familiar terrain and clunky writing are tough to get past (on Mary Todd’s half sister: “like the South itself, Emelie had made her own bed, and now she had to lie in it”). This one’s for Lincoln obsessives only. Agent: Lisa Bankofff, Bankoff Collective. (June)
"A captivatingly sweeping historical novel centered on Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century Springfield, Illinois, and early American race relations…The House of Lincoln provides a compelling but tragic story, artfully conveyed by Horan who interweaves daily lives of various stripes with the glory and despair of 19th-century American history." — Historical Novel Society
"Tells of the period’s political tumult, abolitionist fervor, and unchecked violence. With its smartly tuned dialogue and insistence on hope, the novel delivers a forceful, engrossing read." — Christian Science Monitor
"The book's greatest strength is its unexpected examination of racism in central Illinois, a state long associated with both the Underground Railroad and the Union...Horan has succeeded in illuminating an underconsidered segment of American history. By adding nuance to the history of Illinois in the years surrounding the Civil War, Horan foregrounds the era’s complexity." — Kirkus Reviews
"This is a compelling reminder that events of the past are indelibly connected to attitudes that persist today." — Booklist
"Here, happily, is Nancy Horan doing once again what Nancy Horan does best – telling us the part of the story we don’t yet know. Strong on fine detail yet cognizant of the expansive historical context, Horan’s newest is wonderfully immersive, memorable, important, and pertinent. An ambitious and accomplished work." — Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
"The gifted Nancy Horan once again brings readers into a story — inspired by real events — that will forever change the way they perceive famous historical figures and their times. In the captivating and important The House of Lincoln, the young Portuguese immigrant Ana is hired to help in the Springfield, Illinois home of Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator is on the rise. Through Ana's relationship with Lincoln's wife Mary and her close friendship with Cal, a free Black girl, the novel explores a lesser-known aspect of a crucial historical period." — Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room
"What a gift Nancy Horan has for conjuring the past and bringing it vividly to life! Here, she turns her considerable talents to Lincoln's strange road to the White House and the turbulence of his presidency, illuminating lesser-known perspectives and details that resonate eerily with our contemporary times. This is top-quality literary time-travel, and the trip is well worth taking." — Therese Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of A Well-Behaved Woman
"Brimming with a rich and unforgettable array of imagined and real historical figures who helped to shape Springfield, Illinois and the nation beyond during the turbulent time of slavery and the Civil War, The House of Lincoln is storytelling at its best." — Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Color of Air, The Samurai’s Garden, and Women of the Silk
"Nancy Horan’s nuanced portrait of Abraham Lincoln as his thoughts on emancipation evolve and her deft, revelatory use of narrators from marginalized communities enhance this compelling, beautifully crafted novel. The House of Lincoln evokes the past to illuminate the present as only the very best historical fiction can." — Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters
"Thoroughly researched and full of relevant and humanizing details that provide both local and national context…Should appeal to those who enjoy well-written fiction, readers with a historical bent, people curious about Springfield's past, and anyone looking for a good summer read. Of course, it would also be a good fall or winter read. But why wait?" — Illinois Times
"A well-written and engaging story of a turbulent time in American history. Both teens and adults can enjoy the book as a portrait of a significant era in American history." — The Winnipeg Free Press
"The historical tidbits in this tale are fascinating — the author has done her homework...a rich immersive experience." — Discover Our Coast
★ 06/16/2023
The Confederacy surrendered in 1865, but this historical novel from Horan (Under the Wide and Starry Sky; Loving Frank) proves that the Civil War has not yet ended. The author's previous works delved into the lives of two Americans, while this novel stretches across a wide spectrum of United States history from 1851 to 1909. Through the eyes of two 11-year-old girls—Ana, who's white, and Cal, who's Black—Horan tracks life in Springfield, IL, as Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln take up their White House destiny. Ana (whose family fled persecution in Portugal) and Cal (whose aunt hides from the gangs hunting freedom-seeking enslaved peopled in Kentucky) both work in the Lincoln household and eventually move on. The book is studded with cameos of historic characters like Mary Todd Lincoln's sisters, but the more rousing emotions are conveyed piercingly through Cal and Ana and the people who love them. Anguish in the racial conflicts, tragedy in the casualties of the battlefield, budding romances—all come through with touching grace and empathy. Closing with the horrendous Springfield Riot of 1908 that reopened the wounds from the Civil War, the narrative's end offers a grim foreshadowing of the racial strife of the 20th century. VERDICT Meticulously researched, brilliantly paced, and written for most levels of readers, this is the historical fiction genre at its very best.—Barbara Conaty
2023-03-28
Horan explores the worlds of Abraham Lincoln and the United States before, during, and after the Civil War through the eyes of an immigrant girl who becomes entwined with the soon-to-be-president’s family.
Ana Ferreira’s family, who are Presbyterians, flee religious persecution in Catholic Portugal in the mid-1800s, arriving in Springfield, Illinois, as tensions are rising between the North and South. Fourteen-year-old Ana secures a job in the Lincoln household, helping Mary Todd Lincoln with the household duties as her husband's political power grows. The novel charts the experiences of Ana; her Black friend, Cal, whom she met at the street market where her mother is a vendor; and other characters in the period covering Lincoln's election, the Civil War, the president’s assassination, Mary Lincoln's death, and into the 20th century. While it's interesting to witness the evolution of Lincoln's views on slavery, the book's greatest strength is its unexpected examination of racism in central Illinois, a state long associated with both the Underground Railroad and the Union. Beginning with Ana’s discovery that the Donnegan brothers, two free Black men, are part of the Underground Railroad and continuing through the violence of the 1908 Springfield race riot, Horan explores the often racist history of the state, including the power of the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist groups and the codification of legislation barring formerly enslaved people from settling there. This complicated narrative is far more engaging and less familiar than the Lincolns’ story, and the shifts in focus between the two threads don't always work. But nonetheless, Horan has succeeded in illuminating an underconsidered segment of American history.
By adding nuance to the history of Illinois in the years surrounding the Civil War, Horan foregrounds the era’s complexity.
