When the War is Over Author:Stephen Becker Sometimes a little piece of history comes to light after a long time, and falls into the hands of an artist. He proceeds to tell lies about it - of it is part of a serious novelist's job to tell important lies - and with luck creates a greater truth. Stephen Becker has done just this. — When the War is Over is a beautifully woven fiction about ... more »a small, carefully forgotten fact - an act of shame, the infliction of very probably the last casualty of the American Civil War. On May 11, 1865, 32 days after Lee surrendered, a Union firing squad executed one Thomas Martin, age unknown (probably in his teens), for the crime of being a Confederate guerrilla. Eighteen days later President Andrew Johnson declared an amnesty for all rebel soldiers. This is a novel about inevitabilities, about life and death, and justice and all its guises.« less