The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

This is a well written book that focuses on two recently freed slaves in a southern location immediately after the war. There had to have been a lot of temptation to make this horrifying, and with a couple of sections as exceptions, it really is not that. There is plenty of open racism, but it is balanced by characters who are working to rebuild in a way that treats those who were enslaved fairly. I have not read a lot about early Resonstruction, neither fiction nor non-fiction, and there is a lot to think about in this book. Two people die but the violence is minimal, and there is a sweetness in the writing that is such that I already want to read the author's next book. Every ending suffers in the aftermath of reading Great Circle, and this one is no exeption, but besides that it is an excellent book.