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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Historical fiction
In 1411, ten-year-old Elizabeth Courtenay, the intellectually
precocious and lively daughter of the Earl of Devon, starts to keep
a diary in a light-hearted fashion as a relief from household tasks
and embroidery. Little does she realise then that as an adult she
will go on, not only to record the difficult day-to-day life of a
Lady of the Manor, but also an extraordinary series of misfortunes
and disasters. From the moment she secretly marries William
Bonville of Colcombe Castle, her long life becomes one of desperate
love and grim endurance, interspersed with moments of beauty, hope
and humour. Through her own family and that of her husband,
Elizabeth becomes involved in a vicious local feud which leads into
the ruthless bloody battles of the Wars of the Roses, culminating
in a terrible personal tragedy.
Mags Perry has fled a loveless marriage and returned from England
to 1970s Ireland where she picks up what work she can find as a
freelance journalist. Beautiful, intelligent and idealistic, her
divorce has made her a pariah in traditional Irish society, but the
burgeoning Women Movement offers her an opportunity to join in the
fight for a better, fairer republic - and if possible, find a
different kind of love along the way.
'Thrilling, haunting and darkly beautiful. This Wild, Wild Country
enchants as mysteries deepen and secrets echo over the harsh
realities of the American Dream' Chris Whitaker, bestselling author
of We Begin at the End Three women. An isolated town. A decades-old
mystery. They hate me down there, in Boldville. I can read it in
their eyes, smell it on their noxious breaths. That dreaded little
town hates everything about me: not just my personality and form,
the clothes I wear, but the way I think. The things that I know.
1933. Cornelia Stover is headstrong and business-minded - not the
kind of woman the men of Boldville, New Mexico, expect her to be.
Then she stumbles upon a secret hidden out in the hills . . . 1970.
Decades later, Joanna Riley, a former cop, packs up her car in the
middle of the night and drives west, fleeing an abusive marriage
and a life she can no longer bear. Eventually, she runs out of gas
and finds herself in Boldville, a sleepy desert town in the
foothills of the Gila Mountains. Joanna was looking for somewhere
to retreat, to hide, but something is off about this place. In a
commune on the outskirts a young man has been found dead and Joanna
knows a cover up when she sees it. Soon, she and Glitter, a young,
disaffected hippie, find themselves caught up in a dark mystery
that goes to the very heart of Boldville, where for too long people
have kept their eyes shut and turned their heads away. A mystery
that leads them all the way back to the unexplained disappearance
of Glitter's grandmother Cornelia forty years before . . . A
captivating, atmospheric new novel from the lauded author of The
Long, Long Afternoon, This Wild Wild Country simmers with secrets,
lies and terrible betrayal, unravelling the lives of three women at
the mercy of their times. Praise for Inga Vesper 'Remarkably
assured. A tale of inequality, broken dreams and quiet desperation
behind a picture-perfect facade' Guardian 'A clever and absorbing
debut' The Times 'Beguiling and evocative. This vivid and
atmospheric pageturner will keep readers guessing all the way to
its satisfying finale' Sunday Express 'Beautifully crafted,
claustrophobic and compelling. As delicious as a long drink on a
hot day' Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The
Familiars and The Foundling 'Such a vivid atmosphere of stifling LA
heat and stifling 50s domesticity' Clare Chambers, author of Small
Pleasures 'Breathtakingly stylish, hypnotic and masterfully
gripping' Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End,
Waterstones Thriller of the Month 'A triumph. What a pleasure to
read something fresh and original. For once the hype is justified
and Inga Vesper's gripping page turner must surely now be bound for
Netflix' Evening Standard 'A tasty, tense, page-turning combo of
James Ellroy and Kate Atkinson with a bit of Mad Men thrown in' Liz
Hyder 'An atmospheric tale of repression and style at the heart of
the American Dream' Stylist
The Lady knows the stories: that her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not
leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of
survival, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own.
She does not know that prophecy girds him like armour. She does not
know that her magic is greater, and more dangerous, and that it will
threaten the order of the world.
She does not know this yet. But she will.
In August 1945 the Japanese in Malaya finally surrendered. The
Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, who were largely Communist,
emerged from the jungle to make claim on the promises given them by
the British and Malayan authorities.They were to be disappointed.
The pre-war ban on the Communist Party in Malaya continued and the
promise of land and money in recognition of their brave service
failed to be honoured.After three years of frustration they
returned to the jungle now calling themselves the Malayan Races
Liberation Army. They started to blow up bridges, ambush roads and
abduct local businessmen, many of whom were murdered.In 1948, a
state of emergency was declared and British and Commonwealth Troops
entered the jungle to kill or capture their former allies. This
proved no easy task, for their enemy had been well trained during
the war by British instructors.The emergency or 'The Undeclared
War' lasted until 1960, when the remnants of the terrorists finally
accepted an amnesty.The novel 'Jungle Haven' is the sequel to that
of 'Strange Alliance'. The story restarts in July 1952 as the
book's two main characters, Royal Marines Sgt Major Jim Muir and
Sgt Peter Blake, are coming to the end of their unit's two-year
stint fighting the terrorists. They have just completed their last
patrol and are about to prepare for the move to Singapore then
onward to Malta in the troopship Dilwara.
Carl Benz may be known as the "Father of the Automobile," but Bertha Benz was the woman behind the wheel driving the world into a new era. Woman at the Wheel is a gorgeous historical fiction novel that takes a peek under the hood, examining the life of a fascinating woman who refused to let men hit the brakes on her revolutionary machine
Inspiring historical fiction based on the real life of Bertha Benz, whose husband built the first prototype automobile, which eventually evolved into the Mercedes-Benz marque.
From a young age, Cäcilie Bertha Ringer is fascinated by her father's work as a master builder in Pforzheim, Germany. But those five words, which he wrote next to her name in the family Bible, haunt Bertha.
Years later, Bertha meets Carl Benz and falls in love-with him and his extraordinary dream of building a horseless carriage. Bertha has such faith in him that she invests her dowry in his plans, a dicey move since they alone believe in the machine. When Carl's partners threaten to withdraw their support, he's ready to cut ties. Bertha knows the decision would ruin everything. Ignoring the cynics, she takes matters into her own hands, secretly planning a scheme that will either hasten the family's passage to absolute derision or prove their genius. What Bertha doesn't know is that Carl is on the cusp of making a deal with their nemesis. She's not only risking her marriage and their life's work, but is also up against the patriarchy, Carl's own self-doubt, and the clock.
Like so many other women, Bertha lived largely in her husband's shadow, but her contributions are now celebrated in this inspiring story of perseverance, resilience, and love.
A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.
The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.
Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.
'I implore our citizens and allies that when I shall have departed
this life they will honor my deeds and name with their praise and
kind remembrance.' Vain hope! In death, as in life, political
intrigues, family hatreds and betrayals, and sexual passions and
jealousies combine with a succession of personal tragedies to
destroy the character and good name of Tiberius, the brilliant
stepson and successor of the deified Augustus. The 'ablest of all
the sovereigns the empire ever had' surges to life with all his
stiff pride, mordant wit and penetrating intelligence in this
adventure-packed tale of love, war, political double-dealing,
partisan struggle and brazen treachery. The hand of fate lays waste
all rivals, leaving Tiberius the reluctant Caesar, burdened by the
twin griefs of having to give up the woman he loves in order to wed
Augustus's licentious daughter, and the bitter humiliation of
having been the choice of last resort to govern Rome. While his
military prowess shields the empire, his reputation and political
authority are under incessant assault and treachery, not only from
enemies but even his most trusted lieutenant, Sejanus, in this epic
novel of an age whose events often mirror those of the present.
Tiberius - Reluctant Caesar depicts a world whose political
duplicity, cynical manipulations, fanatical hatreds, public
gullibility and sexual intrigues are difficult to distinguish from
our own.
In The Daughter of Rome, Calandra helps her father, a renowned
sculptor, complete the most significant commission of his illustrious
career. But then a catastrophic fire nearly destroys the imperial city,
leaving Calandra reliant on a group of Christians--unusual individuals
unlike any she has encountered before. Intrigued by their worship of
the Son of an invisible God, Calandra grapples with her mistrust, only
to find herself indebted to these believers as they help her rebuild
her shattered world.
When Emperor Nero begins constructing his opulent Golden House, the
people of Rome grow resentful, suspecting him of starting the fire in
order to clear the land for his immense palace. Needing a scapegoat,
Nero points at those who follow the Jewish Messiah, forcing Calandra to
make an impossible choice between right and wrong, friends and family,
love and death.
'Unspoken' charts the interlocking stories of a very different
group of characters through the tumultuous decade of the 1960s in
Ireland. It is an ambitious novel, rich in characterisation, which
depicts a period integral to the story of modern Ireland.
The Secrets of the Lake is a gripping wartime novel, by the author
of The Silk Weaver, Liz Trenow. 'Masterful storytelling, immersive
locations, and characters that inhabit your heart from the first
page' - Gill Paul, author of The Secret Wife. The war may be over,
but for Molly life is still in turmoil. Uprooted from London after
the death of her mother, Molly, her father and younger brother
Jimmy are starting again in a quiet village in the countryside of
Colchester. As summer sets in, the heat is almost as oppressive as
the village gossip. Molly dreams of becoming a journalist, finding
a voice in the world, but most of the time must act as Jimmy's
carer. At just ten years old he is Molly's shadow, following her
around the village as she falls under the spell of local boy Kit.
Kit is clever, funny and a natural-born rebel. Rowing on the waters
of the lake with him becomes Molly's escape from domestic duty. But
there is something Kit is not telling Molly. As the village gossip
starts building up with whispers against Molly's father over
missing church funds, everything Molly thought she knew is turned
upside down. And on one stormy night, when she sneaks out of the
house to try to put things right, Jimmy vanishes. Never to be seen
again. Decades later, Molly is an elderly woman in sheltered
housing, still haunted by the disappearance of her brother. When
two police officers arrive to say that the remains of a body have
been found at the bottom of the lake, it seems like Molly will at
long last have her answer . . .
From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.
One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.
Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis’s life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost.
On the voyage to France Wordsworth meets the elegant Elizabeth
Montrose, who is travelling to Orleans to visit her nephew Pierre.
Wordsworth's plans are to visit Paris and Orleans so when Elizabeth
Montrose invites him to call on her, he gratefully accepts. There
he meets Pierre, stays at his splendid chateau and visits his
vineyard. Pierre is a generous man and gives freely to his workers
and the locals. But his generosity doesn't allay fears that as the
revolution spreads, his chateau and vineyard will become targets
for pillage and destruction. At the chateau Wordsworth meets the
beautiful Annette Vallon. They become inseparable but their lives
are clouded with fear. Revolutionary France is a dangerous place
for foreigners and Wordsworth must leave for his safety. Wordsworth
is distraught as Annette is expecting his child and he vows to
return when calmer times prevail. Back in England he befriends
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and they collaborate on works of poetry,
particularly the Lyrical Ballads. William and Dorothy return to the
Lake District and find Dove Cottage where they meet again a
childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. William and Mary fall in love but
Wordsworth has learned Annette gave birth to a daughter, his
daughter. He is drawn again to France to see Annette and their
daughter and after joyous times there he returns to England to
write, and with Annette's blessing, to marry Mary Hutchinson. This
is a splendid novel which captures the horrors of revolution and
the brilliance of Britain's best-loved poet.
Imagine waking up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that
on the other side is your child...
Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go
home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine.
When she awakes, everything has changed. Because overnight, on 13
August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin has closed,
slicing the city - and the world - in two.
Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable
in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to
shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate.
Lisette's teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand
the distance between herself and her mother. Both have lived for music,
but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her
mother - once a talented pianist - the music has gone silent.
Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What
begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape
East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home....
Based on true stories, The Silence in Between is a page-turning,
emotional epic that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
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