THAT FATEFUL LIGHTENING In a village outside Saratoga Springs, New York, a weakened man sits with pen in hand, looking back at a life dominated by failure: as a farmer, a businessman, a politician--everything but as a soldier. Racked by cancer, Ulysses S. Grant is entering his final months, facing the prospect of leaving his beloved wife penniless. Now he begins one last campaign--to bring to life the only thing of value he still commands: his memoirs. In the weeks and days that follow, Grant tells a story of war and peace, of friends and enemies, and of a man born for one singular purpose--to lead an army into battle, and to lead it to victory. In this extraordinary novel, Richard Parry takes us on a powerful journey through the Civil War as seen through the shrewd, unwavering eyes of its most enigmatic and least understood protagonist. For as Grant wages a duel against death itself, and his friends and family gather around him, he reveals with stunning clarity his vision of the war: at once a tragedy and a challenge, a nightmare and a puzzle, an epic of carefully laid strategies and counter-strategies as well as a strokes of inexplicable, decisive chance. Within these pages we meet such powerful historical figures as Mark Twain, the book publisher trying desperately to rescue Grant from poverty in the last year of his life; William Tecumseh Sherman, brilliant and dynamic, but also unsure and sorely in need of Grant's nurturing in war and life; and General Robert E. Lee, whose differences from Grant vividly illustrate the cultural and social divide at the core of the Civil War. A rich, vivid, and action-packed addition to our nation's literature of the Civil War, THAT FATEFUL LIGHTENING is a powerful portrait of a uniquely American hero, a simple but misunderstood man who felt truly at peace only amid the horror and chaos of war. Rights Information Publisher: Ballantine, Hardcover (June 6, 2000) Territory: World Rights Available: Film/TV Reviews: "Sentimental but stirring salute to Ulysses S. Grant that visits the former Civil War general and American president near the end of his life, as he suffers stoically with poverty and throat cancer while struggling to complete his memoirs...Parry's burnished Grant is nothing less than an American saint, whose proud but lonely end will bring tears from the most hardened Robert E. Lee fan." - Kirkus "Interspersed throughout the narrative are truly evocative scenes...Parry's novel successfully captures the essence of a dying hero's struggle with the grim realities of life." - Library Journal "Ulysses S. Grant was a complex, enigmatic figure whose flaws and foibles provide a wealth of material for biographers and novelists alike, but Parry smoothes over the rough edges in this glowing fictional portrait by focusing exclusively on Grant's achievements during the Civil War...Parry nicely delineates the various generals Grant fought with and against, particularly William Tecumseh Sherman and Robert E. Lee, balancing these portraits with brief glimpses into the lives of ordinary soldiers and of Grant's long-suffering wife, Julia...The narrative takes on some urgency in the closing chapters as Parry draws touching parallels between the final siege in the Wilderness that opened the door to Richmond, and Grant's race against time to finish the book before cancer brings his life to a close. The author's obvious affection for his subject gives this novel an overly sympathetic bias, but that affection also allows him to illuminate Grant's elusive human side." - Publishers Weekly Blurbs: Purchase at Amazon.com

THAT FATEFUL LIGHTENING

In a village outside Saratoga Springs, New York, a weakened man sits with pen in hand, looking back at a life dominated by failure: as a farmer, a businessman, a politician--everything but as a soldier. Racked by cancer, Ulysses S. Grant is entering his final months, facing the prospect of leaving his beloved wife penniless. Now he begins one last campaign--to bring to life the only thing of value he still commands: his memoirs. In the weeks and days that follow, Grant tells a story of war and peace, of friends and enemies, and of a man born for one singular purpose--to lead an army into battle, and to lead it to victory.

In this extraordinary novel, Richard Parry takes us on a powerful journey through the Civil War as seen through the shrewd, unwavering eyes of its most enigmatic and least understood protagonist. For as Grant wages a duel against death itself, and his friends and family gather around him, he reveals with stunning clarity his vision of the war: at once a tragedy and a challenge, a nightmare and a puzzle, an epic of carefully laid strategies and counter-strategies as well as a strokes of inexplicable, decisive chance.

Within these pages we meet such powerful historical figures as Mark Twain, the book publisher trying desperately to rescue Grant from poverty in the last year of his life; William Tecumseh Sherman, brilliant and dynamic, but also unsure and sorely in need of Grant's nurturing in war and life; and General Robert E. Lee, whose differences from Grant vividly illustrate the cultural and social divide at the core of the Civil War.

A rich, vivid, and action-packed addition to our nation's literature of the Civil War, THAT FATEFUL LIGHTENING is a powerful portrait of a uniquely American hero, a simple but misunderstood man who felt truly at peace only amid the horror and chaos of war.

Rights Information

Publisher: Ballantine, Hardcover (June 6, 2000)

Territory: World

Rights Available: Film/TV

Reviews:
"Sentimental but stirring salute to Ulysses S. Grant that visits the former Civil War general and American president near the end of his life, as he suffers stoically with poverty and throat cancer while struggling to complete his memoirs...Parry's burnished Grant is nothing less than an American saint, whose proud but lonely end will bring tears from the most hardened Robert E. Lee fan." - Kirkus

"Interspersed throughout the narrative are truly evocative scenes...Parry's novel successfully captures the essence of a dying hero's struggle with the grim realities of life." - Library Journal

"Ulysses S. Grant was a complex, enigmatic figure whose flaws and foibles provide a wealth of material for biographers and novelists alike, but Parry smoothes over the rough edges in this glowing fictional portrait by focusing exclusively on Grant's achievements during the Civil War...Parry nicely delineates the various generals Grant fought with and against, particularly William Tecumseh Sherman and Robert E. Lee, balancing these portraits with brief glimpses into the lives of ordinary soldiers and of Grant's long-suffering wife, Julia...The narrative takes on some urgency in the closing chapters as Parry draws touching parallels between the final siege in the Wilderness that opened the door to Richmond, and Grant's race against time to finish the book before cancer brings his life to a close. The author's obvious affection for his subject gives this novel an overly sympathetic bias, but that affection also allows him to illuminate Grant's elusive human side." - Publishers Weekly

Blurbs:

Purchase at Amazon.com