Enemy Women

A Novel

As lyrical and poignant as Ahab’s Wife and Cold Mountain, here is a wondrous tale set against the tragedy of the American Civil War. . . . “Jiles carries her gifts with deft precision.”—New York Times Book Review

The Colley family are modest farmers in the Missouri Ozarks. Although Southerners, the Colleys try to remain neutral, a fact ignored by the Union militia who confiscate their livestock, burn their farm, and arrest their daughter, Adair, on charges of “enemy collaboration.”

Yet as this innocent young woman soon discovers, fate can have a double edge. While imprisoned, she falls in love with her interrogator, a Union major who helps her escape. Transferred to the front lines, he promises he will survive and marry her. And Adair, now an escaped convict, must begin her own harrowing journey through the wilderness and enemy territory to find the family she left behind.

In unsentimental yet elegant prose, Paulette Jiles reveals the universal horrors of war and its irreparable damage, and introduces a wonderful new character in a memorable, touching story.

Fascinating history

This book is much more than I expected. It is obviously well researched and cited. It actually fills in blanks in my genealogy that I could never have hoped to find. Great reading b

Beautiful Prose

This story offers accurate information about the Civil War in Missouri. I used to live in Cape Girardeau and recognize all the place names in the story.
The characters were well drawn and nuanced as were the horses which featured largely in the tale.
The plot was nicely paced and kept my interest.

Enemy Women

Dislike all the cuss words love the story and the interesting war facts that were given

Enemy Women is another great story by Paulette Jules

I have listened to and enjoyed News of the World and Simon the Fidler. Enemy Women is equally engrossing and well written. I didn’t think the performance by Reba Buhr was as good as Grover Gardner for the other two books.

The sacrifices and suffering of the common people, as well as the soldiers.

It made me aware of a totally different way of looking at the Civil War