A young Confederate sharpshooter, Charlie Merrill, has already suffered many losses in his life, but he must find a way to endure--and to grow--if he is to survive the battles he and his fellow soldiers face in July 1864 at the gates of Atlanta. From the opening salvos on Rocky Face Ridge in northwest Georgia through the trials of Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain, Charlie faces the overwhelming force of the Union army and a growing uncertainty about his place in the war. Framed by a story that finds the elderly Charlie giving a speech on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta, A Distant Flame portrays love, violence, and regret about wrong paths taken. With an attention to historical detail that brings the past powerfully to the present, Philip Lee Williams reveals Charlie's journey of redemption from the Civil War's fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.

With an attention to historical detail that brings the past powerfully to the present, Philip Lee Williams's novel reveals a journey of redemption from the Civil War's fields of fire to the slow steps of old age. Winner of the 2004 Michael Shaara Prize for the best Civil War novel.

Osceola had no illusions that the struggle would be an easy one. But after years of humbly acquiescing to the white men's demands, he was ready to fight no matter what the cost. The young men would have the chance to earn war honors. Their women would have reason to be proud of them again. When "Old Man" Jackson declared war on the Seminole, he never envisioned battling a people who would become symbols of courage, loyalty, and patriotism. Led by the mighty warrior Osceola and witnessed by his beloved daughter Little Warrior, they were men and women fighting an unjust war of greed and aggression -- and the bonds of love and rebellion that united them would thrust them into the heart of a conflict that would change the world and their lives forever. "Robson is especially good at detailing the daily life of the 19th Century Seminoles and her Osceola is a charismatic and proud hero." -- The Orlando Sentinel

“Lightman’s best book since Einstein’s Dreams . . . a piercing story of social dissolution in damaged Cambodia . . . an important story of global women’s rights.” —Annie Proulx The stories of one Cambodian family are intricately braided together in Alan Lightman’s first work of fiction in seven years. Three Flames portrays the struggles of a Cambodian farming family against the extreme patriarchal attitudes of their society and a cruel and dictatorial father, set in a rural community that is slowly being exposed to the modern world and its values. Ryna is a mother fighting against memories of her father’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and her powerful desire for revenge. Daughter Nita is married off at sixteen to a wandering husband, while her sister Thida is sent to the city to work in the factories to settle their father’s gambling debt. Kamal, the only son, dreams of marrying the most beautiful girl in the village and escaping the life of a farmer. Yet it will be up to Sreypov, the youngest, to bravely challenge her father and strive for a better future. Three Flames is a vivid story of one family's yearning for freedom and of a young girl's courage to face down tradition. “Lyrical and poignant, Three Flames weaves the stories of three generations of a poor, Cambodian farming family as they struggle to survive and hold on to their humanity . . . Beautifully written and told with great compassion, Alan Lightman's novel gives readers a family that is rich in stories, history, and heart, proving in the end that love shines even in the midst of great darkness.” —Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father