In Bemidji author Kevin McColley's new novel "The Other Side", a civil war era farm boy flees after killing a local bully in a fight . After drifting for a while, he ends up in Missouri with Quantrill's Raiders, a rag-tag guerilla army involved in brutal attacks against northern civilians. McColley says he'd wanted to write a Civil War novel for a long tine, but only felt he'd found a subject that hadn't been done to death when he ran across accounts of the raiders. His novel, which has now been nominated for a National Book Award, examines how ordinary people can do horrible things. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he actually finished the book four years ago, but it has taken that long for him to get over the experience of dealing with the subject matter. Kevin McColley's novel "The Other Side" is published by Simon and Schuster. He will read from his book at St Olaf College in Northfield October 11th.

This file was digitized with the help of a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).