Henry and Clara

Thomas Mallon's skill at spinning fact into fiction in his latest novel, Watergate, led me back to this 1994 work. In it, he uses two characters on the periphery of history to paint a portrait of an era, a war, and a family. The characters of the title were in the Lincolns' box at Ford's Theater on the night of the assassination. Henry and Clara is a big, old-fashioned novel written in Mallon's winning style.