Cahaba Prison, Alabama, April 1865
Finally, you learn to wait.
You learn to wait while the rain falls for four days and nights; wait as the rivers rise over their banks, carrying with them the town shit and your own; wait as this new sewer-lake begins seeping into the cotton warehouse that is now a prison, your home. And then you learn to wait in your skin and bones: wait as the sewer-lake-pond-river consumes your toes, your feet, your ankles; wait as it crawls up your shins and over your knees; wait until your balls and prick are sodden; and then wait some more because when you are standing in a flood and not allowed to leave, there is nothing else to do....
Thus begins this compelling work of historical fiction that, while taking place mostly on land, begins and ends, as it must, in water: The river that overflowed a Confederate prison camp in Alabama and, at the other end, the mighty Mississippi, all that stood between broken men finally returning to homes and loved ones they had left behind years earlier.
At the heart of the novel are four invented prisoners from Indiana, the Muncie Men-George, Ephraim, Henry, and Jake-and a boy named Boy. This is their story, but it's also the story of the tens of thousands of real-life captives who survived, or didn't, often in unspeakable conditions in Civil War prison camps, both North and South, and of the greed and corruption that often thrives on the sidelines of great conflicts.
The Sultana had a listed capacity of 376 passengers when it set out from Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the night of April 24, 1865, with more than 2,000 on board, the vast majority of them Union Army POWs, homeward bound at last. A single surviving photograph captures the joy of that passage. Nothing other than fiction can capture its end. Writes author Howard Means: "I hope this novel at least offers solace because, most of all, this is a book about love."
Industry Reviews
Praise for Books by Howard Means
"Finally, the clich© is peeled away, and the essence of this utterly American character is so revealing. John Chapman comes alive here, and it is a thrilling experience to escape the specific gravity of the decades of myth." -Ken Burns, writing about Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story
"In Howard Means's fine hands, we discern how the terrible events at Kent State unfolded - relentlessly, ineluctably - like a Greek tragedy." -Hampton Sides, author of Kingdom of Ice, writing about 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence
"In this gracefully written and well-informed narrative, Howard Means supplies a critical missing piece in the making of the United States.... Anyone curious about how this country came to represent the best and worst of human nature will find surprising revelations in this book." -Noah Andre Trudeau, author of Out of the Storm, writing about The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation
"An exuberant and sweeping cultural history of the sport and a thoughtful meditation on its possible origins and humankind's relationship to water itself." -Julie Checkoway, author of The Three-Year Swim Club, writing about Splash! 10,000 Years of Swimming
"Splash! is an incredible book - the most amazing stories of anything and everything you wanted to know about the world and culture of swimming and its history. I loved every page."
-Rowdy Gaines, three-time Olympic gold medalist
