What do readers think of The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman? Write your own review.

Great story which shows how emancipation of the slaves had its downside, and the difficulties experienced by both sides.

After finishing this well-crafted novel, and enjoying it immensely, I went to LibraryThing to enter it into my list of books read. I was shocked to see that NO ONE on LT has read this book. In my opinion, the writing is up there with Cold Mountain: it's that good. The characterization was a bit weak, I suppose, but that's a minor complaint. The writing itself is just gorgeous, so maybe only a writer (or, in my case, a writer-in-training) would find that reason enough to read it. My wife couldn't get into it, thought it was too slow-moving.

This is an excellent historical fiction that tries to recreate a time and place, to give the reader a feel for what life was like then. It isn't the typical historical fiction novel that's really a romance novel in disguise. Because it's not a bodice-ripper or a plot-driven thriller, it seems to have found no readership. I'm guessing, I don't know how publishing works. But I'd recommend it to anyone who likes literate historical novels, even if they are lacking battles, intrigue, and that sort of thing. It's a book to savor, linger over, and read again.