The Brother Voice by William Delamar

The setting for this book is in Frederick, Maryland, during the Civil War. The main characters are twin brothers, Sel and Hol. Sel joins the Union because he hates slavery, and Hol joined the South because he said it felt like home. Cora Dee Soyer is the woman who loved both men. She says she couldn’t support either cause because it would feel as she were killing the other. Sel and Hol eventually are unable to speak telepathically as the battles became more brutal. It culminates in the Battle of Monocacy, which is close to Frederick. The author’s use of imagery is beautiful, without resorting to clichés. In the prologue, he talks about the voices of the dead, “cries that formed a curtain of voices. They called out to wives and sweethearts and mothers, a roll call of those left behind.” Cora’s father is a kindly minister who says to her, in Chapter Seven, “Being angry is worse than being sad. Being sad has a beauty to it. People are sad for something with meaning. But anger means thinking as stopped and meaning doesn’t matter. No light shines in the hidden pathways.” This book was not only factually correct, but it was also a story very well-written. I loved it.