The House of Lincoln is a captivating novel that brings to life a diverse cast of both fictional and historical characters who played a pivotal role in shaping Springfield, Illinois, and the nation as a whole during the tumultuous era of slavery and the Civil War. Horan's masterful storytelling transports readers to a bygone era, where they can witness firsthand the struggles and triumphs of the people who lived through this pivotal moment in American history. With its richly drawn characters and vividly rendered settings,

(Will be published 6 June 2023)

The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan

Books by Nancy Horan are an automatic order at Owl’s Nest Books. Her novel about Frank Lloyd Wright, Loving Frank sold several hundred copies from our tiny store, due to the handselling talent of one of our former staff — it was picked up by at least half-a-dozen local book clubs.

With the current climate south of the Canadian border, The House of Lincoln reminds us of an important part of history — just as many people out there want to push us backward as pull us forward. Lincoln was considered nearly radical when he was elected, but he was not without his own prejudices against Black people and other minorities. But what made him the man he was was that he consistently questioned his own beliefs.

Horan shows us Lincoln through the eyes of the people of Springfield, IL. Of various races and cultural backgrounds, they weave a tapestry of what the USA was like in the time just before, during, and after the US Civil War. While the book tipped a bit toward sermonizing in places, I don’t necessarily see that as a detraction — a lot of people in this world still need to hear the sermon. Canada is also very guilty of racism throughout its history, especially in our treatment of the land’s Indigenous peoples.

Definitely a recommended read.

I’ve always been interested in Lincoln and the Civil War. I was excited to read this book about Ana and her life with Lincoln family. I did think the book started out slow but then the middle part was good. The last few chapters were not quite as interesting. I still thought it was a good book.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

First let me thank the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the advanced copy. This is my unbiased review.

I’ll be honest, when I requested this book I wasn’t aware that it was historical fiction. It was only after the advanced copy came through that I came to realize that. I couldn’t have been happier. I love historical fiction and enjoy reading about Abraham Lincoln. This book was well written and really drew you in. It was one that I couldn’t put down. You felt invested in each of the main characters lives.

The later part of the book made me sad to realize that some of the same tensions that existed back there still reverberate throughout out society today.

Excellent book. Would highly recommend.

As always - this author simply always delivers! She always brings history to life in such a way that you don’t realize you are actually learning about the lives of people that affected the way we live. Great story, well written and amazing characters.

I did finish this book, but didn’t enjoy it all that much. To me it seemed a bit disjointed and I guess I kept expecting it to get better. It wasn’t what I’d hoped.

I received this book from the publisher via net galley in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like the description let me down. I was expecting a book about Lincoln, his family and his rise to the presidency. For myself Lincoln was mostly in the background. Ana is a Portuguese immigrant who works for a while helping Mrs. Lincoln. It feels more like Ana's story growing up in Springfield, having to learn a new language and getting an education due to the patronage of a wealthy woman. Her best friend is Cal, a light-skinned black girl and through this relationship she sees some of the workings of the Underground Railroad. I had a hard time staying interested even though the writing was fine. Maybe if there was more focus on Ana's story or on Lincoln's instead of trying to tell both neither story or characters seemed well developed .

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a digital copy.

This story will not only give you a glimpse into LIncoln, but his wife, Mary, and the decisions that framed his Presidency. It also includes the life of Ana Ferreira and her family,who are from Portugal, and how their lives are interwoven with the Lincoln's. The Underground Railroad will also be included and how it worked and some of those involved in its operation. The story is a long one, but with details and descriptions that will give you an insight into a time of history that is needful in today's setting.

It's 1851, Springfield, Illinois, a young immigrant girl and her family finds themselves far from home and the language that soothed their soul. Its in the midwest they find opportunity in the home of the Lincoln's. Ana gets hired to help clean and care for Abraham and Mary's sons. She gets a front seat to the rise of Lincoln to presidency.

This novel covers more than 50+ years of Ana's life, and her friendship with with an African American girl. She witnesses her friends involvement in the underground railroad, and a community divided by slavery. This story is steeped in historical information about the island Ana's family fled, Springfield, Il and few key figures during this time.

Abraham Lincoln is truly a fascinating man. From his humble upbringing to the White House, he deeply cared about his country, his family and ending the suffering due to slavery. This bit of history is pivotal to our story, and its a glimpse "what" not to repeat.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the complimentary copy.

The House of Lincoln was a could not finish for me. I was interested to read about Lincoln. When the first three chapters covered only the life of the maid who worked for Lincoln, I lost interest in the book.

I am a fan of historical fiction but I don't recall reading much historical fiction about Abraham Lincoln. The House of Lincoln is about Lincoln's life in Springfield, IL and leading up to his time as President. I should also say that I am from Springfield and there is a fair amount of history of Springfield in this book including the Race Riots that took place in Springfield.

However, all that being said, this book really centers around Ana Ferreira. Ana's family has immigrated to Springfield from Madeira, Portugal. When Ana is 14 years old, she is hired to work in Abraham Lincoln's home, helping Mary Todd Lincoln with her family. Ana also tells us about events going on around Springfield and the country, especially regarding slavery. In fact, the story is more about Ana than Lincoln. The story starts in 1851 and ends around the time of the Race Riots in 1908.

I was fascinated to read about the events Ana described, especially since I could picture where the events were taking place. However, even if you are not from Springfield, you will still enjoy the book.

I received an ARC of The House of Lincoln in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Sourcebooks and Net Galley for affording me a sneak peak into Nancy Horan's latest historical novel. Having analyzed the doomed affair between the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney and the turbulent partnership of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his Indiana-born wife, Fanny Osbourne, Nancy Horan turns her attention to Abraham and Nancy Todd Lincoln. This sweeping historical novel is unique in that its account of the Lincolns is reflected primarily through the lens of Ana Ferreira, a young immigrant whose family fled religious persecution in Madeira, Portugal, ultimately settling in Springfield, Illinois.

Ana, who received an education thanks to a pious widow for whom she served as a companion, along with her childhood friend, the freeborn Cal, are recruited as teens to work in the Lincoln household, assisting the sensitive, kind and lonely Mary Lincoln with her young sons and with her duties as a partner to the unkempt lawyer and rising political star. With her unerring eye for detail that makes history so accessible, Horan explains how Mary’s sister was appalled that Mary had fallen in love with “such an uncouth person as Abraham Lincoln” whose “twang” revealed that he had come from “country poverty” and who urged Mary to reciprocate the attention of Stephen Douglas, a likely future President, who had courted her “quite enthusiastically.”

Ana takes the reader through the evolution of Abraham Lincoln from a stint in the U.S. House of Representatives who had no fear of offending southern states with his views on slavery in his legendary debates with Douglas to U.S. President to the Great Emancipator. Horan uses Ana, Cal and ancillary characters, like Lincoln’s barber, to provide details about the society in which they were living. These characters discuss how Illinois, despite having been a free state since its beginnings, engaged in the cat and mouse of moving runaways since the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act with its stiff fines and jail terms for those who assisted runaway slaves, debate the colonization of black people to Liberia, deride the Illinois Black Laws which made free black men only half free, and applaud the fiery orator Frederick Douglass.

Horan brings the past to life with a masterful blend of careful research and a skilled novelist’s attention to detail. She explains, for example, how the Lincolns, concerned that their dog Fido would “be upset by the busyness of the White House,” gave the dog to a friend before they departed for Washington, with “strenuous instructions on the care and feeding of Fido.” It is these types of seemingly extraneous details that help to provide the reader with a more robust picture of these towering historic figures. She also shines a light on the lives of those, like Ana and Cal, whom history typically ignores.

The House of Lincoln was a beautifully written historical story about a young girl, who's family immigrated from Portugal, and ended up working for Abraham Lincoln's family. It deals with the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and Race Riots, and describes them all in such heart breaking detail that you can picture yourself living through the events that shaped our nation. Absolutely memorizing novel!

Having visited the Mary Todd House recently in Lexington, Kentucky and walking through a piece of history, my interest was peeked in "The House of Lincoln" by Nancy Horan.

First line: February 1909: Below, the men are eating turtle soup.

Synopsis: Horan's book gives us a different look into the Lincoln family and the years preceeding. during and after the Civil War via Ana, a Portuguese immigrant and servant for the family. Ana watches the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union. Helping Mary Todd Lincoln with household duties as Abraham Lincoln's political power grows, she has a unique view of the family dynamics. Ana also confronts racial prejudice alongside her friend and she watches the inner workings of the underground railroad. The reality of slavery contradicts the promise of freedom in her adopted country.

My thoughts: My first Nancy Horan book was an interesting and educational experience. This is an epic tale spanning 50 years and covering so very much ground. Its sad to think how far we still have to go as a country for everyone to be treated equally. While this isn't my normal go-to type of story, my favorite sections are the ones we get to experience life as Ana does in her new home of Springfield, Illinois. With topics of slavery, immigration, class differences, and women's rights "The House of Lincoln" is a compelling read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for introducing me to Nancy Horan and lessor known information about an important time in our history.

This book tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's rise from lawyer to U.S. president, told through the voice of a young immigrant from Madeira, Portugal. In this story fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys Although Ana is a fictional character, the influx of people from Madeira Island to Springfield due to the oppressive climate and labor conditions was very real. This was not something I was aware of, and I found this very enlightening. The book also covers the underground railroad, the assassination of Lincoln, and the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908. This riot was the catalyst for forming the NAACP. I had never heard of the Springfield race riot, and it was horrifying to read about this tragic time in U.S. history. I liked that the story was told from the fresh perspective of an immigrant, giving an insider's view on this time period.. If you are a history buff or a fan of historical fiction, then you definitely will want to read this.

It’s always nice to read books of historical figures. This book bring you a lot of the history of Lincoln’s time and his life. Very entertaining and highly recommend.

Set in the time leading up to and after the Civil War, Ana briefly works in the Lincoln household in Springfield. She is a Portuguese and has a front seat to strife and prejudice.

I did not enjoy this book, mostly because it is called The House of Lincoln and there is very little Lincoln in it. This book is about Ana and the times and is so slow that it is tedious. I have read and liked Horan's books before, but they are actually about the person named in the title. Not only did I feel like this was very misleading; I just did not find anything interesting or good about this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

The premise of this story is totally misleading. Which is upsetting, because I’ve been waiting to read this book for at least a year.

The majority of the story is told from Ana’s POV. She’s a Portuguese immigrant who worked as a housekeeper for the Lincolns on the weekend. Ana and her relationship with the Lincolns is only a small part of the narrative. She had no knowledge of the “inner workings of the Underground Railroad”, she only learned of this from a newspaper article YEARS after the Civil War ended and I never once saw where she “confronted the racial prejudice her friend encounters daily”. We do get other POVs from a number of characters in the book, but between the subplots and the huge jump in time beginning towards the middle of the book…this just didn’t work for me.

There are tons of historical facts sprinkled in regarding immigration, slavery, the Lincolns, the Civil War, Emancipation, the Springfield Race Riot of 1908…. and so this reads more like a “Who’s Who” of Springfield, IL.

I hate to say it, but over all this was dry and boring.

Ana’s family has come to America from Portugal looking for asylum, and she is old enough to find a job to help with the family expenses. Her position assisting Mary Lincoln, wife of the up-and-coming Abraham Lincoln, gives her a unique opportunity to witness not only the family relationships but the political world as well. Her black friend, Cal, inadvertently introduces her to the Underground Railroad, something that makes her much more aware of the racial differences in her town, and just how important it is that Mr. Lincoln succeed in his political goals.

I’ve read enough books and watched enough History Channel programs to know a fair bit about Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, so I was already familiar with much of the family dynamics portrayed in this book. Telling the story through the eyes of a teenager, though, provided a unique perspective into the lives of the Lincolns and the political turmoil of the time, primarily the issue of slavery, but also the impending civil war. The reader also gets to peak behind the curtain around a family of immigrants, which was enlightening.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected or hoped for – I was looking for more of a biography of Abraham Lincoln and his family, and not so much focus on everything else. When I thought about it, though, I realized that it would be hard to tell the story of Lincoln without getting into “everything else,” as so much of what was happening at the time shaped his beliefs and policies. I wasn’t aware of the race riots in Springfield in the early 1900s, but reading the author’s descriptions made it seem eerily like I was reading an article plucked from one of today’s new sources – and it’s scary that we apparently have learned much of anything in a century.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, well researched and offered different perspective on pre and post Civil War - in a northern state.