A Different Sin

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Summary: A novel that has been called "the queer Gone With the Wind."
Review: (NOTE: A Different Sin was originally published by Los Hombres Press. However, the book is now available from and in stock at Orlando Place Press.) As the country hurtles toward Civil War, David Carter finds employment as an artist for a New York illustrated paper--and becomes the lover of a fellow newsman. Stricken with guilt for the "sin" of loving another man, David volunteers as a war correspondent covering Grant's 1864 drive toward Richmond. Faced with the horrors of bloody Civil War battles, David is forced into a final confrontation with his own nature. A Different Sin was described by Diane Raymond, co-author with Warren J. Blumenfeld, of Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life, as "beautifully written and carefully researched...the love scenes are wonderfully sensual and moving...the queer Gone With the Wind!" Bishop John Shelby Spong, author of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, praised the book as "...a dramatic story, well told, presenting homosexuality in an intensely human way. Rochelle Schwab calls out of her readers a higher consciousness and a deeper humanity while forcing prejudice and ignorance into retreat." John Starr, reviewing for OUT in Virginia, wrote "A well-researched, well written, fiery historical gay novel...The sex is erotic and tasteful. The seduction scene with Walt Whitman poetry melted me...All in all, an excellent novel." And And the Alexandria Gazette-Packet said "Schwab's depiction of war's horrors has the ring of truth...Civil War enthusiasts will find much that is diverting in A Different Sin."

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Summary: An unforgettable and compelling story
Review: A Different Sin, which features characters and settings from Rochelle Schwab's earlier novel, As Far As Blood Goes, is a powerful exploration of sexual orientation and of prejudice against those who are "different." Through the story of David Carter, Schwab shows the pain and isolation that went along with being gay in the 1860s, a time when the language didn't even include a word for non-heterosexual love. Born into a Virginia slave-owning family, Carter moves to New York and falls in love with a man. His own "sinful" feelings frighten him, and he tries to escape their intensity by immersing himself in the violence of the Civil War, as a newspaper correspondent. With honesty and sensitivity, Schwab offers a complex, powerful portrait of a man confronting his own nature, against a vivid and well-researched background that doesn't flinch from the horrors of war. A Different Sin is an unforgettable and compelling story of forbidden love, set in a specific time but with themes that are, ultimately, timeless.

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Summary: A window on the past and present
Review: This book took me back in time and helped me walk a mile in the shoes of someone completely different. The main character lived at a different time, in a different place, and has a different sexual orientation than I have. But in every other way, he's not very different from most people. That plus all the great historical research and realistic characters and situations helped me put myself in his place and understand what it was like to be gay 150 years ago, to be reviled for who you are. And yet this book is not didactic or preachy. It's just a really good story, and a good civil war story at that. If you or someone you know enjoys history and could benefit from seeing the world through the eyes of someone different from himself or herself, this is the book to read.

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Summary: Unusual novel about a gay man set during the Civil War
Review: This Civil War era novel by Rochelle Hollander Schwab has an unusual twist -- the protaganist, David, a young artist from Virginia, is gay. Of course, David doesn't realize that he is, or that his sexuality is a large part of what makes him feel so ill at ease with other people. Schwab has written a moving and believable account of David's struggle to understand and accept this aspect of himself during a time when sex and love between two men was termed an "abomination." As an artist for a prominent newsweekly, David is exposed to the horrors of a bloody and terrible war, and these war-time experiences help him resolve his questions concerning his responsibility to himself and to the people he loves.