Morning of a Crescent Moon

A woman set on leaving nursing and the wars behind finds that war follows her wherever she goesand this time it's a civil battle with the mine workers in Virden, Illinois. In Morning of a Crescent Moon, N. J. Schrock renders the tumult of the 1898 Battle of Virden with a storyteller's grace, fusing historical truth with imagined lives. Against the backdrop of labor unrest and the gathering storm of violence, Cate Merry-a young woman scarred by war and seeking renewal-steps into a town divided by strikes and shadows. There she encounters Noah McCall, a miner bound by duty to his siblings and by circumstance to the perils of the pit. As Virden braces for conflict, their stories entwine with the fates of families, workers, and townsfolk caught in the crosscurrents of justice, sacrifice, and survival. Both elegy and love story, the novel gives voice to the ordinary people whose courage and longing shaped one of America's fiercest struggles for dignity.