--- product_id: 121375303 title: "The Undertaker's Assistant: A Captivating Post-Civil War Era Novel of Southern Historical Fiction" price: "S$17" currency: SGD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/121375303-the-undertakers-assistant-a-captivating-post-civil-war-era-novel store_origin: SG region: Singapore --- # The Undertaker's Assistant: A Captivating Post-Civil War Era Novel of Southern Historical Fiction **Price:** S$17 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Undertaker's Assistant: A Captivating Post-Civil War Era Novel of Southern Historical Fiction - **How much does it cost?** S$17 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/121375303-the-undertakers-assistant-a-captivating-post-civil-war-era-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description An enthralling novel of historical fiction for fans of Lisa Wingate and Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Undertaker’s Assistant is a powerful story of human resilience set during Reconstruction-era New Orleans that features an extraordinary and unforgettable heroine at its heart. “The dead can’t hurt you. Only the living can.” Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies—and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer’s shortcomings. Tall and serious, Effie keeps her distance from the other girls in her boarding house, holding tight to the satisfaction she finds in her work. But despite her reticence, two encounters—with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline—introduce her to new worlds of protests and activism, of soirees and social ambition. Effie decides to seek out the past she has blocked from her memory and try to trace her kin. As her hopes are tested by betrayal, and New Orleans grapples with violence and growing racial turmoil, Effie faces loss and heartache, but also a chance to finally find her place . . . Review: Fans of Historical Fiction Must Not Miss this Illuminating Page Turner - When I was a young girl I read Johanna Spyri's Heidi. I couldn't stop crying after I read the last page, not because it ended sadly but because there was no more. I was so deeply enmeshed in the lives of the characters I couldn't accept that, for me, their lives ended with this story. The Undertaker's Assistant, the second novel by author Amanda Skenandore, affected me in precisely the same way. I could barely force myself to put the book down and go to bed. I rushed back to the pages as soon as I arose each morning. I wept copious tears when I read the last page. I was so thoroughly involved in the lives, emotions, successes and failures of each character in this story it felt as if I was tearing off skin to let them go. Ms. Skenandore has succeeded in penning yet another book that should be a best seller by any yardstick that includes literary fiction. Her writing is so steeped with honesty, so well researched, and so poignantly laid upon the page as to elevate the reader to a new level of understanding, sympathy, empathy and intellect. The main character, Effie, and all the auxiliary characters will be forever inscribed upon my mind and indeed, my very soul. This author succeeds in framing every scene with words that evoke every sense from sounds to smells to emotions and everything in-between. You cannot read this book without being carried back in time to another place; you cannot go on this journey without experiencing the wounds our society inflicted on so many and is still inflicting, without remorse, on the descendants of the people these characters are built upon. The book is so relevant to the here and now of conversations going on in our current political climate, the upcoming election, the pain filled and hurtful rantings of those without empathy for the suffering of other human beings. I loved this author's first book, Between Earth and Sky, that dealt so deftly with the travesty of assimilation of the Native American population via Indian Boarding Schools, for it's sensitive portrayal of the human cost of "helping" the "other" in society through the tender and ill-fated romance of the main characters. This book, The Undertaker's Assistant, opened my eyes to a period of history I knew little about, Reconstruction after the Civil War. Effie and Samson and Tom and Adeline and Jonesy and so many others spread across this period of history in such a natural and believable way under Ms. Skenandore's able pen. Their lives were fraught with trauma, rising above their beginnings, falling into easy and strangling relationships without a thought, the everyday carrying on of life's routines, successes, disappointments, human weaknesses and human strengths. The longing to know who we are, where we came from and where we are going was upfront and present throughout the story. Feelings of emptiness, not fitting in, falling deeply and inexplicably in love, entitlement, prestige, debasement and as many others as you can conjure are all present and accounted for. This is a book that will make you feel and make you think. It will expand your grasp of a period in history that continues to trouble us today. I hope it will make you feel something you haven't felt before. I know this author is a nurse, but her grasp of what an Undertaker does blew the doors off. What detailed explanations and descriptions, what a nuanced portrayal of the need for detachment, what wonderful skill in taking the reader into an unseemly experience and actually making us watch with sensitivity. This type of thing makes me squeamish but the author brought me into this part of the story with the necessary detachment to avoid those feelings. She's good. The A negative? Perhaps for me, because I don't speak French, the frequent use of french phrases interrupted my thoughts and feelings from time to time as I tried to decipher the author's intent or meaning. And vocabulary unique to the time forced me to stop and look up a word much more often than I am used to. I think I have a good vocabulary and a good education until I read something by Amanda Skenandore! I can't wait for her next book. Review: Worth the Read - Starts off very interesting. I really like Effie. Depicts New Orleons during that time very well. There were slow slow parts,thus the 4 Star rating. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #89,374 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #954 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books) #3,461 in Literary Fiction (Books) #4,880 in Historical Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 6,719 Reviews | ## Images ![The Undertaker's Assistant: A Captivating Post-Civil War Era Novel of Southern Historical Fiction - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91AGbYjW18L.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fans of Historical Fiction Must Not Miss this Illuminating Page Turner *by L***R on August 3, 2019* When I was a young girl I read Johanna Spyri's Heidi. I couldn't stop crying after I read the last page, not because it ended sadly but because there was no more. I was so deeply enmeshed in the lives of the characters I couldn't accept that, for me, their lives ended with this story. The Undertaker's Assistant, the second novel by author Amanda Skenandore, affected me in precisely the same way. I could barely force myself to put the book down and go to bed. I rushed back to the pages as soon as I arose each morning. I wept copious tears when I read the last page. I was so thoroughly involved in the lives, emotions, successes and failures of each character in this story it felt as if I was tearing off skin to let them go. Ms. Skenandore has succeeded in penning yet another book that should be a best seller by any yardstick that includes literary fiction. Her writing is so steeped with honesty, so well researched, and so poignantly laid upon the page as to elevate the reader to a new level of understanding, sympathy, empathy and intellect. The main character, Effie, and all the auxiliary characters will be forever inscribed upon my mind and indeed, my very soul. This author succeeds in framing every scene with words that evoke every sense from sounds to smells to emotions and everything in-between. You cannot read this book without being carried back in time to another place; you cannot go on this journey without experiencing the wounds our society inflicted on so many and is still inflicting, without remorse, on the descendants of the people these characters are built upon. The book is so relevant to the here and now of conversations going on in our current political climate, the upcoming election, the pain filled and hurtful rantings of those without empathy for the suffering of other human beings. I loved this author's first book, Between Earth and Sky, that dealt so deftly with the travesty of assimilation of the Native American population via Indian Boarding Schools, for it's sensitive portrayal of the human cost of "helping" the "other" in society through the tender and ill-fated romance of the main characters. This book, The Undertaker's Assistant, opened my eyes to a period of history I knew little about, Reconstruction after the Civil War. Effie and Samson and Tom and Adeline and Jonesy and so many others spread across this period of history in such a natural and believable way under Ms. Skenandore's able pen. Their lives were fraught with trauma, rising above their beginnings, falling into easy and strangling relationships without a thought, the everyday carrying on of life's routines, successes, disappointments, human weaknesses and human strengths. The longing to know who we are, where we came from and where we are going was upfront and present throughout the story. Feelings of emptiness, not fitting in, falling deeply and inexplicably in love, entitlement, prestige, debasement and as many others as you can conjure are all present and accounted for. This is a book that will make you feel and make you think. It will expand your grasp of a period in history that continues to trouble us today. I hope it will make you feel something you haven't felt before. I know this author is a nurse, but her grasp of what an Undertaker does blew the doors off. What detailed explanations and descriptions, what a nuanced portrayal of the need for detachment, what wonderful skill in taking the reader into an unseemly experience and actually making us watch with sensitivity. This type of thing makes me squeamish but the author brought me into this part of the story with the necessary detachment to avoid those feelings. She's good. The A negative? Perhaps for me, because I don't speak French, the frequent use of french phrases interrupted my thoughts and feelings from time to time as I tried to decipher the author's intent or meaning. And vocabulary unique to the time forced me to stop and look up a word much more often than I am used to. I think I have a good vocabulary and a good education until I read something by Amanda Skenandore! I can't wait for her next book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Worth the Read *by J***. on July 3, 2026* Starts off very interesting. I really like Effie. Depicts New Orleons during that time very well. There were slow slow parts,thus the 4 Star rating. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Self-determination is behind this story *by M***G on May 6, 2026* I love Amanda Skenandore's writing. She builds fully fleshed out characters you can't help but root for. This story describes the time period right after the American Civil War, and Skenandore's protagonist, a young Black woman with a special skill set as an undertaker, is particularly riveting. We take so much for granted today, and brave women have had to fight for every scrap of self-determination. This book talks about all those struggles. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sg/products/121375303-the-undertakers-assistant-a-captivating-post-civil-war-era-novel](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/121375303-the-undertakers-assistant-a-captivating-post-civil-war-era-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Singapore* *Store origin: SG* *Last updated: 2026-10-20*