The Thread Collectors

I really enjoyed listening to The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman. Had the story gone a little bit deeper, I think I would have loved it. That being said, it was an excellent story told in an effective way. I highly recommend it. It was too new to select as a book for my synagogue book club, but at some point I'm hoping we can discuss it.

The authors, Edwards and Richman, tell the story of the Civil War from perspectives we don't often hear from. William is a fugitive slave who enlists in the Union Army where he meets Jacob, a Jewish musician from New York, who is a musician in the Union Army. Through their chance meeting, William's experience in the war is very different from what it might have been had they not met.

Both men have left loves behind. William leaves Stella, a slave to the same master, back in New Orleans while Jacob leaves his wife, Lily, in New York City. While the men communicate with the world thru their music, the women have different ways of communicating. After Stella hand stitches a map to help William escape in order to join up, women on her street ask her to stitch maps for their loved ones. Lily shares her thoughts through her written words. She volunteers in New York City, trying to make a difference to the war effort. She writes articles for an abolitionist newsletter and is part of an organization of suffragettes. To make an early connection between Lily and Stella, Lily is part of a quilting bee even though as a motherless girl, she never learned how to quilt. Or sew. Or knit.

This isn't exactly a spoiler, but at the end of the novel, the authors' note indicates which parts of the story are based on facts from the authors' families' stories and which parts of based on historical research. I'm can't stop thinking about the connections.