"From the first page, Purgatory grabs you by the heart and won't let go. Scary, touching, visceral. It's a journey through war and love you won't easily forget."-Erastes, author of Mere Mortals"The bonds of war are most vivid in Jeff Mann's powerful Purgatory as Reb and Yank suffer more personal skirmishes than large scale battles. Mann's powerful and evocative prose gives us the exhausted courage of the Civil War's late stages while descending into the brutality man imposes on his fellow man. The two soldiers manage to build a tender relationship amid the carnage, even as their ultimate engagement is built upon a brutality at times rejected, at times embraced."-Dale Chase, author of The Company He KeepsDuring the Civil War, two young soldiers on opposite sides find themselves drawn together. One is a scholarly, war-weary Southerner who has seen too much bloodshed, especially the tortures inflicted upon the enemy by his vicious commanding officer, his uncle. The other is a Herculean Yankee captured by the ragtag Confederate band and forced to become a martyr for all the sins of General Sheridan's fires. When these two find themselves admiring more than one another's spirit and demeanor, when passions erupt between captor and captive, will this new romance survive the arduous trek to Purgatory Mountain?"From beginning to end, Purgatory is rife with relentless tension, teeming with passion and romance, and laced with an array of both likable and loathsome characters. Purgatory is truly a compelling and interesting read. Bravo to Mann for a groundbreaking novel that blends historical facts and fictional characters in a touching romance between two men." --Edge New York''Mann's writing combines elegance and earthiness in realistic passages that move the action along swiftly and dramatically. A professor at Virginia Tech, Mann has taught such courses as Appalachian folk culture, gay and lesbian literature and creative writing. His familiarity with Southern history and American lit color and enrich the narrative. Whether intended or not, the cast of characters recalls that of Melville's Billy Budd, with Drew the Billy-Christ martyr figure, George the repressed Claggart and Sarge an unreflecting Captain Vere. The novel's last page, in which the lovers try to imagine the future, calls to mind nothing less than Prior Walter's blessing in the final scene of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.''--Elliott Mackle for Out in Print
