Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers' Favorite

Abigail Cutter’s The Last of What I Am is a riveting and well-crafted historical novel about a Confederate soldier and the American Civil War. The narrator is the ghost of Tom Smiley, a Confederate veteran from Bethel in Augusta County, in southwestern Virginia. Tom’s spirit continues to live in his family home in Bethel into the 21st century. Tom’s memories of the Civil War and his profound remorse at the death and devastation caused by the war will not let his spirit rest. His sense of who he is, everything in his life, and his family’s life from the 19th century is still in the farmhouse. All that changes abruptly when the new owners, Harry and Phoebe Hunter, begin significant renovations of the home. Tom’s heart breaks as his memories are ripped away. His anger grows. Phoebe senses a ghostly presence as she opens closets and chests, discovering long-ago letters among many family treasures. Intuitively, with her growing awareness of the family who lived here once, she reaches out to Tom and he tells her his story about those dark and grim Civil War days. The novel twists and turns to the very end.

Profoundly moving and thought-provoking, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Last of What I Am for its remarkable characters and deeply personal narrative. I particularly liked how Tom Smiley’s character remains central to the story, as he remembers the harrowing and unforgettable days of the Civil War and then his heart-wrenching helplessness when the 21st century intrudes into his home, unaware and uncaring about his memories and his spirit. The novel gained great depth with the rich and vivid details of the other characters, Tom’s family, his boyhood friends who were also infantrymen with him, and the other Confederate soldiers Tom came to know in the war. I was deeply moved as I read the letters from Mary, Tom’s sister, during the war, and how these letters were a lifeline for him to survive at all costs and to return home. I also liked the details Abigail Cutter worked into the novel after Tom returned from the war, as well as the challenges he faced in postwar life. The interweaving of the paranormal and the layering of past and present was expertly crafted through Phoebe’s intuition, understanding, and encouragement. The Last of What I Am has complex and compelling themes; a historical and contemporary story of friendship, loyalty, family, forgiveness, and redemption.