In 1989, when Allan Gurganus published his debut novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, he did something amazing: Through a work of fiction, he managed to bring to life what was, to date, the most divisive period in American history, the Civil War years—a time in which as many as 620,000 of our fellow citizens (2% of the population) died. Perhaps even more astounding, Gurganus made it clear that although the war ended in 1865, the fallout it produced has lingered in the national atmosphere ever since, burning through consecutive generations of “Yankees” and “Rebels” much the way General Sherman’s Army blazed its way across Georgia toward the sea. Nearly 25 years after the book’s initial publication and 150 years since the launch of the four-year conflict that killed more Americans than all other U.S. wars combined (from the Revolution to Vietnam), it’s time to take a fresh look at Allan Gurganus’s brilliant first novel and remind ourselves of something we may have forgotten: When two parts of the same whole turn on each other, no one truly wins.Â