Lincoln Raw: A Biographical Novel. Abraham Lincoln's Lost Stories, #1

Soul of a poet, son of a farmer Abraham Lincoln's early life, as he might have told it had he been so inclined Inescapably human, Abraham Lincoln tells his own coming-of-age story-he's nerdy, eccentric, awkward, rustic, vulnerable, depressed, sly, witty, brilliant, driven. Lincoln Raw-a biographical novel proves that no matter what raw materials we're made of or what mistakes we make along our journeys, our values, not our circumstances, determine who we become.
Seven-year-old Abraham Lincoln's boyhood dies when his father drags their family from the relative comfort of Kentucky into an unforgiving Indiana wilderness. While suffering rebuke for teaching himself to read and write, Abraham endures rumors of illegitimate birth, escapes death a half dozen times, labors to repay his father's debts, and grieves the deaths of his infant brother, angel mother, precious sister, and beloved sweetheart.
By his early thirties, he casts off his parents' religion, becomes estranged from his closest friend, and loses faith in his own character when he breaks an engagement to marry a woman he doesn't love. He spirals into life threatening depression. In the prime of life, unable to keep a pledge made to his dying mother to become someone special, he wrestles with self-doubt, abandons politics, and resigns himself to a life of mediocrity.
But when his long-time rival opens the door for slavery's expansion across half the globe, Lincoln faces the greatest challenge of his life-his beloved country is being ripped apart. Grounded in historical record, the story is enriched by insights gleaned from the works of prominent Lincoln scholars.