This book isn't as much about Lincoln's path to the White House and through the Civil War as it is about the way it affected his home of Springfield, Illinois, told from the perspectives of three people connected to him. The fictional Ana Ferreira, an immigrant from Portugal whose family came seeking religious freedom, works for the Lincoln family. Spencer Donnegan was a preacher and Lincoln's barber, whose freeborn family assisted runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. The third perspective is that of Mary Todd Lincoln, voicing the sadness that came alongside the family's successes. Horan depicts the town as a microcosm of the ongoing struggle for racial equality, from stricter laws in the 1850s that prohibited Black people from settling in Illinois to the 1908 Springfield race riot that spurred the formation of the NAACP. The strong sense of place is enhanced by sympathetic characters who, to the end, embody hope and determination. This is a compelling reminder that events of the past are indelibly connected to attitudes that persist today.

Horan explores the worlds of Abraham Lincoln and the United States before, during, and after the Civil War through the eyes of an immigrant girl who becomes entwined with the soon-to-be-president's family.Ana Ferreira's family, who are Presbyterians, flee religious persecution in Catholic Portugal in the mid-1800s, arriving in Springfield, Illinois, as tensions are rising between the North and South. Fourteen-year-old Ana secures a job in the Lincoln household, helping Mary Todd Lincoln with the household duties as her husband's political power grows. The novel charts the experiences of Ana; her Black friend, Cal, whom she met at the street market where her mother is a vendor; and other characters in the period covering Lincoln's election, the Civil War, the president's assassination, Mary Lincoln's death, and into the 20th century. While it's interesting to witness the evolution of Lincoln's views on slavery, the book's greatest strength is its unexpected examination of racism in central Illinois, a state long associated with both the Underground Railroad and the Union. Beginning with Ana's discovery that the Donnegan brothers, two free Black men, are part of the Underground Railroad and continuing through the violence of the 1908 Springfield race riot, Horan explores the often racist history of the state, including the power of the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist groups and the codification of legislation barring formerly enslaved people from settling there. This complicated narrative is far more engaging and less familiar than the Lincolns' story, and the shifts in focus between the two threads don't always work. But nonetheless, Horan has succeeded in illuminating an underconsidered segment of American history.By adding nuance to the history of Illinois in the years surrounding the Civil War, Horan foregrounds the era's complexity.