Best-selling author Alyssa Cole's 2017 novel, An Extraordinary Union, is a tender espionage romance that is unsparing in its portrayal of the racism of the 19th century. Set during the U.S. Civil War, freedwoman Ellen Burns poses as a mute, enslaved person working in the Virginia household of a Confederate senator in order to gain intelligence for the Union Army. At the same time, Scotsman Malcolm McCall pretends to be a Confederate soldier in order to spy on the politician’s family. The two soon find themselves working together, falling in love, and risking their lives for the promise of a better America.
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