Booth is Karen Joy Fowler’s spectacular new work of historical fiction about the family of John Wilkes Booth, infamous assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. In the author’s note, Fowler describes how she was inspired to take on this subject matter after witnessing the uptick of mass shootings in America, and how she started to wonder about the families of the shooters — “how would such a family deal with their own culpability, all the if-only’s?” She is adamant about her intention to focus on the mother, father, and siblings as much as possible, not wanting to give John Wilkes Booth any more attention than history has already given him. There were ten Booth children in total, but only six lived to adulthood, and all were raised by their doting mother and surprisingly progressive father (famous Shakespearean actor Junius Booth) who was vegetarian, atheist, and opposed to slavery. The novel follows the fascinating yet tragic family from 1822 to 1865. From the perspective of each of the siblings in turn, we see the young Booths grow up on a farm near Baltimore, move throughout cities and theaters of the North (and, at times, California and abroad), and eventually find themselves in Washington D.C. at the event that would mark the family and American history forever.

I found Fowler’s retelling of the Booth history absolutely engrossing. Booth is bursting with rich details and interwoven timelines of the Booth family, President Lincoln, and America itself, and must have taken an incredible amount of research. In under 500 pages, Fowler delivers an intimate portrait of a family as well as a panoramic view of a nation at war, combining the compulsive readability of a novel with the thoroughness of a history book. Impressively, Fowler’s writing style mirrors this push and pull between intimate and epic. She relays the day-to-day interactions of the siblings, giving each a distinct voice and personality — my favorite was Rosalie, the eldest sister who acts as a pseudo-mother to her siblings and seems to know them better than they know themselves. And at the same time, Fowler narrates from an omniscient point of view with a voice that feels Shakespearean. It’s grand yet unpretentious, filled with irony, wordplay, and off-beat humor, and perfectly suited to this family’s saga. Booth is a breathtaking novel, tragic in its timeliness, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I’d recommend this novel to…

• Anyone who loves historical fiction that keeps you continuously guessing what’s real and what’s imagined… it’s similar in style to Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• Anyone who appreciates narration that feels both reverent and tongue-in-cheek… it’s similar in tone to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Anyone who has a penchant for novels set during the Civil War… it’s similar in theme to March by Geraldine Brooks