Five-Carat Soul

National Book Award winner McBride (The Good Lord Bird) here offers an exceptional group of stories. It begins with an antique toy dealer who happens upon a one-of-a-kind train set—with military implications—that once belonged to Robert E. Lee and ends with a mini-novella narrated by a lion at a zoo who is trying to understand the complexity of society and his place in it. Most pieces involve the concept of freedom, none more explicitly than "Father Abe" about a mixed-race orphan who approaches the Union Army in search of a father he believes (mistakenly) to be Lincoln, only to find one named, yes, Abe who marvels at the child's definition of freedom. There's also another Civil War story and one from World War II. Arguably the best involves a boastful heavyweight who finds himself in a match with the Devil's equivalent of St. Peter for his soul and the souls of four others sitting on the "Moaning Bench." There's a good amount of humor here, but most of these pieces are deeply emotional. This is McBride at his A-list best.