Late in the novel, one of the characters says that "Chosen family … sometimes grow closer in sympathy than any other" (page 227). I'm not sure if they would have said "chosen family" in the time period of the novel -- the phrase struck me as a modern one -- but there's no question that it is a major and poignant theme of the book, as the characters we meet struggle to survive during the period of the U.S. Civil War and its aftermath. Phillips draws some wonderful characters, presents some incredibly harrowing but realistic scenes, and the ways in which these people coalesce into their chosen family is meaningful and consequential.