Here is the cover copy!
I killed a man the summer I turned
thirteen . . .
Thus begins C. S. Harris’s haunting,
lyrically beautiful tale of coming of age in Civil War-torn Louisiana.
Eleven-year-old Amrie St. Pierre is catching tadpoles with her friend Finn
O’Reilly when the Federal fleet first steams up the Mississippi River in the
spring of 1862. With the surrender of New Orleans, Amrie’s sleepy little
village of St. Francisville – strategically located between the last river
outposts of Vicksburg and Port Hudson – is now frighteningly vulnerable. As the
roar of canons inches ever closer and food, shoes, and life-giving medicines
become increasingly scarce, Amrie is forced to grow up fast. But it is her own
fateful encounter with a tall, golden-haired Union captain named Gabriel that
threatens to destroy everything and everyone she holds most dear.
Told with rare compassion and insight, this is a gripping,
heart-wrenching story of loss and survival; of the bonds that form amongst
women and children left alone to face the hardships, depravations, and dangers
of war; and of one unforgettable girl’s slow and painful recognition of the
good and evil that exists within us all.
On a related note, there's been some confusion about pub dates here and overseas, as well as ebook sales and preorder dates, but I think I now have them figured out. Sort of.
The hardcover version of the book is currently available for preorder both here and overseas. It will go on sale in Britain and related countries at the end of August and in the US and Canada at the beginning of December. The ebook will not be available in Britain until it is available here in December (weird, I know, and I don't have a clue why). The ebook will not be available any where for preorder until six weeks before it goes on sale in the States, so that means preorders should be available in mid-October. Again, I don't quite understand the delay, but that's the way it's set up.