Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks

Finished Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks. It's a fictionalized account of abolitionist John Brown's exploits as told by Brown's son Owen to Brown biographer Oswald Garrison Villard's assistant Miss Mayo. The narrator recounts Brown's exploits from his failed business ventures to his settling in upstate New York (where the title derives as a mountain overlooking the Brown homestead was called the Cloudsplitter) to his actions in Kansas and ultimately the failed siege of Harper's Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia). Throughout the saga Owen acts as his father's right-hand man and at times serves as the prod to marauders' violence.

Next up is War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.