Historical Fiction, Quest
This book cleverly merges two genres, historical fiction and the quest. By retelling the age-old story of the hero's quest to get home in the specific moment of the American Civil War, it gives us a poignant experience closer to home (yep, we went there) than the Odyssey.
Most Americans know something about the Civil War (or at least napped through some lessons on it in school) and its memory is still a big part of the American experience. So the book brilliantly gives readers a quest story far enough away in history to be intriguing and close enough to feel immediate.