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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Historical fiction
"An extraordinary novel . . . a triumph of insight and storytelling." -Associated Press "A true masterpiece." -Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything. Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana's pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome's occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history. Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus's life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman's bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place and culture devised to silence her. It is a triumph of storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the height of her powers.
'Historical fiction at its finest' - Belfast Telegraph Dorset, 1642. When bloody civil war breaks out between the King and Parliament, families and communities across England are riven by different allegiances. A rare few choose neutrality. One such is Jayne Swift, a Dorset physician from a Royalist family, who offers her services to both sides in the conflict. Through her dedication to treating the sick and wounded, regardless of belief, Jayne becomes a witness to the brutality of war and the devastation it wreaks. Yet her recurring companion at every event is a man she should despise because he embraces civil war as the means to an end. She knows him as William Harrier, but is ignorant about every other aspect of his life. His past is a mystery and his future uncertain. The Swift and the Harrier is a sweeping tale of adventure and loss, sacrifice and love, with a unique and unforgettable heroine at its heart.
"Allende is a master storyteller at the peak of her powers."--Los Angeles Times The New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea tells the story of one unforgettable woman--a slave and concubine determined to take control of her own destiny--in this sweeping historical novel that moves from the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the ninteenth century. The daughter of an African mother she never knew and a white sailor, Zarite--known as Tete--was born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue. Growing up amid brutality and fear, Tete found solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and the mysteries of voodoo. Her life changes when twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770 to run his father's plantation, Saint Lazare. Overwhelmed by the challenges of his responsibilities and trapped in a painful marriage, Valmorain turns to his teenaged slave Tete, who becomes his most important confidant. The indelible bond they share will connect them across four tumultuous decades and ultimately define their lives.
"Captivating...Mah channels Kennedy and brings postwar Paris to life with exquisite detail and insight." -- People From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier's college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayal, and the coming-of-age of an American icon - before the world knew her as Jackie. In September 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She's twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother's expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressure, she has one year to herself far away from sleepy Vassar College and the rigid social circles of New York, a year to explore and absorb the luminous beauty of the City of Light. Jacqueline is immediately catapulted into an intoxicating new world of champagne and chateaux, art and avant-garde theater, cafes and jazz clubs. She strikes up a romance with a talented young writer who shares her love of literature and passion for culture - even though her mother would think him most unsuitable. But beneath the glitter and rush, France is a fragile place still haunted by the Occupation. Jacqueline lives in a rambling apartment with a widowed countess and her daughters, all of whom suffered as part of the French Resistance just a few years before. In the aftermath of World War II, Paris has become a nest of spies, and suspicion, deception, and betrayal lurk around every corner. Jacqueline is stunned to watch the rise of communism - anathema in America, but an active movement in France - never guessing she is witnessing the beginning of the political environment that will shape the rest of her life-and that of her future husband. Evocative, sensitive, and rich in historic detail, Jacqueline in Paris portrays the origin story of an American icon. Ann Mah brilliantly imagines the intellectual and aesthetic awakening of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and illuminates how France would prove to be her one true love, and one of the greatest influences on her life.
A haunting and moving debut, The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell is perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Binding. 1838. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound, and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life . . . In London, Dr Borthwick lives a solitary life working as an accoucheur dealing with mothers and babies in the elegant homes of high society together with his midwife, Mrs Bates, and volunteering in the slums of the Devil's Acre alongside a young widow, Eleanor Johnson. His professional reputation is spotless and he keeps his private life just as clean, isolating himself from any new acquaintances. But he is harbouring a dark secret from his past - one that threatens to spill over everything.
Out of the West is a compelling work of literary fiction, a war novel that also explores the challenges of peace. A gripping historical adventure, it paints a portrait of courage and love in the fatal shadow of global conflict that has spilled tragically into the twenty-first century. Citizens of Nazi-occupied Greece face daily decisions that affect their freedom and their survival. When music teacher Petros intervenes in a dispute between a Greek woman and a German soldier, he and jazz singer Thea are plunged into the brutal world of armed resistance. Ian Chalmers, a British agent, lands in Northern Greece, where he joins Petros and Thea s network. Never fully understanding his Greek collaborators, he forms a deep bond with them. In Scotland after World War Two, Ian is alienated from everyday life until he meets Clare, an up and coming intelligence officer. Surrounded by opportunity and courted by influential mentors, Ian and Clare learn that integrity has to be fought for in peacetime Britain just as in wartime Europe. When Ian undertakes a final mission to Greece, now in the full throes of civil war, the weight of ideology and history descends with sudden force on the small town where former friends and enemies confront one another in a terrifying climax.
"Mundy writes beautifully." - The Times In 1932, Wanny Woldstad, a young widow, travels to Svalbard, daring to enter the Norwegian trappers' fiercely guarded male domain. She must prove to Anders Saeterdal, her trapping partner who makes no secret of his disdain, that a woman is fit for the task. Over the course of a Svalbard winter, Wanny and Saeterdal will confront polar bears, traverse glaciers, withstand blizzards and the dangers of sea ice, and hike miles to trap Arctic fox, all in the frigid darkness of the four-month polar night. For Wanny, the darkness hides her own deceptions that, if exposed, speak to the untenable sacrifice of a 1930s woman longing to fulfil a dream. Alongside the raw, confronting nature of the trappers' work, is the story of a young blue Arctic fox, itself a hunter, who must eke out a living and navigate the trappers' world if it is to survive its first Arctic winter.
On a damp July morning in 1946, two schoolboys find a woman's body
in a bomb site in north London. The woman is identified as Lillian
Frobisher, a wife and mother who lived in a war-damaged terrace a
few streets away.
The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn . . . At first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother's potions cure their little ills-for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. And why shouldn't their family prosper? They're careful. It's only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh. But even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep. Now as the secrets festering beneath the soil of the family orchard threaten to bring them all to ruin, the Benders must sharpen their craft-or vanish themselves. ________________ Praise for Camilla Bruce - 'Extraordinary' The Times - 'Dark glee and tragedy - you'll gobble this up' Laura Purcell - 'An amazing book, riveting, heart-breaking and intense. I couldn't put it down' My Favourite Murder Podcast
August 1939. Thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright is tasked with the evacuation and safekeeping of the natural history museum’s collection of mammals. Once she and her exhibits arrive at Lockwood Manor, however, where they are to stay for the duration of the war, Hetty soon realizes that she’s taken on more than she’d bargained for. Protecting her charges from the irascible Lord Lockwood and resentful servants is work enough, but when some of the animals go missing, and worse, Hetty begins to suspect someone – or something – is stalking her through the darkened corridors of the house. As the disasters mount, Hetty finds herself falling under the spell of Lucy, Lord Lockwood’s beautiful but clearly haunted daughter. But why is Lucy so traumatized? Does she know something she’s not telling? And is there any truth to local rumours of ghosts and curses? Part love story, part mystery, The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey is a gripping and atmospheric tale of family madness, long-buried secrets and hidden desires.
Greed and ambition threaten to tear the north apart. War rages between the two kingdoms of Northumbria. Kin is pitted against kin and friend becomes foe as ambitious kings vie for supremacy. When Beobrand travels south into East Angeln to rescue a friend, he unwittingly tilts the balance of power in the north, setting in motion events that will lead to a climactic confrontation between Oswiu of Bernicia and Oswine of Deira. While the lord of Ubbanford is entangled in the clash of kings, his most trusted warrior, Cynan, finds himself on his own quest, called to the aid of someone he thought never to see again. Riding into the mountainous region of Rheged, Cynan faces implacable enemies who would do anything to further their own ends. Forced to confront their pasts, and with death and betrayal at every turn, both Beobrand and Cynan have their loyalties tested to breaking point. Who will survive the battle for a united Northumbria, and who will pay the ultimate price for lord and land?
Diane McKinney-Whetstone's lyrical first novel, "Tumbling," vividly
captures a tightly knit
A luscious historical novel, The Jewel brings to glorious life the dramatic years of Jean Armour and Robert Burns's courtship, and their tempestuous, passionate married life, against a background simmering with political intrigue and turmoil. Jean, a beautiful young woman with the voice of a nightingale, set young Rab's heart aflame from the first. Jean's father tried to protect her from the advances of the mercurial ploughman-poet, whose roving eye was notorious. But she would not be kept from him. Their marriage endured against all odds, its rocky course revealing Jean's indomitable strength and character. How Jean lived with - and frequently without - her famous husband is surely Scotland's greatest love story.
She must face the terror of war alone to survive…1939 - India When headstrong Nadine Burton learns that the woman, she thought was her Indian Ayah was in fact her mother, she rebels against her father in a flamboyant display of disrespect and dares to dance with her two local best friends at a public party. Her father, local official, Roland Frederick Burton is furious. He arranges for her to be exiled from India and married off to Australian Martin McPherson, owner of a rubber plantation north of Singapore. Within a year Singapore falls to the Japanese. Martin is killed and Nadine becomes a prisoner of war, imprisoned in Sumatra, where her dancing skills don’t go unnoticed by her captors. Amidst the horror she finds a friend in a Japanese American major caught up in the war whilst visiting his grandparents in Japan. Much like her, he straddles two cultures and worlds. As their love deepens, boundaries are crossed and together they must unite to survive. Don't miss this emotional and powerful saga about a woman's determination to beat the odds, perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies and Fiona Valpy. Previously published as 'East of India' by Erica Brown
Powerful, moving and redemptive, RIVER SING ME HOME tells of a mother's desperate search to find her stolen children and her freedom. 'A strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love' JEANETTE WINTERSON ---------------------------- We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on our lips. Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. These are the names of her children. The five who survived, only to be sold to other plantations. The faces Rachel cannot forget. It's 1834, and the law says her people are now free. But for Rachel freedom means finding her children, even if the truth is more than she can bear. With fear snapping at her heels, Rachel keeps moving. From sunrise to sunset, through the cane fields of Barbados to the forests of British Guiana and on to Trinidad, to the dangerous river and the open sea. Only once she knows their stories can she rest. Only then can she finally find home. 'Eleanor Shearer is a remarkable writer and brings this story of a mother's courage to the page with compassion, tenderness and pitch-perfect prose' NATASHA LESTER 'Eleanor Shearer bursts onto the literary scene with...an extraordinary odyssey of pain, love, and homecoming... A haunting and powerful debut' KATE QUINN 'An immersive and spellbinding debut reminding us that the human spirit will always reach for freedom' CHERYL A. HEAD
"I have a story to tell you. It is a tale of adventure, of love, and deception, of destiny and death. It is a tale of kings, and emperors, and of beautiful princesses; but also of poets, pirates, and priests. It is a story to entertain and instruct, to stir the blood, to inflame the senses, to dizzy the mind and rouse the soul..." Ismail the Storyteller tells tales of Abu Nuwas, the poet, libertine and spy known as The Father of Locks and his bitter rivalry with a Roman assassin; tales which gradually reveal a shocking betrayal, and culminate in a death which will shock the world. The sequel to The Father of Locks.
A special edition from Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning classics that make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Featuring beautiful heritage wallpaper patterns from Jane Austen's own home in Hampshire, these collectable paperback editions are a must for all Jane Austen fans. Oft-copied but never bettered, Jane Austen's Emma is a remarkable comedy of manners. Austen follows the charming but insensitive Emma Woodhouse as she sets out on an ill-fated career of match-making in the little town of Highbury. Taking the pretty but dreary Harriet Smith as her subject, Emma creates misunderstandings and chaos as she tries to find Harriet a suitor, until she begins to realize it isn't the lives of others she must try to transform. With original illustrations by the celebrated Hugh Thomson, this Macmillan Collector's Library edition also features bonus material by Jane Austen expert Sophie Reynolds.
THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "An exquisitely detailed journey through the harrowing field of medicine in mid-19th century London."-Tracey Enerson Wood, USA Today bestselling author of The Engineer's Wife and The War Nurse An unforgettable historical fiction novel about one woman who believed in scientific medicine before the world believed in her. London, 1845: Raised by the eccentric surgeon Dr. Horace Croft after losing her parents to a deadly pandemic, the orphan Nora Beady knows little about conventional life. While other young ladies were raised to busy themselves with needlework and watercolors, Nora was trained to perfect her suturing and anatomical illustrations of dissections. Women face dire consequences if caught practicing medicine, but in Croft's private clinic Nora is his most trusted-and secret-assistant. That is until the new surgical resident Dr. Daniel Gibson arrives. Dr. Gibson has no idea that Horace's bright and quiet young ward is a surgeon more qualified and ingenuitive than even himself. In order to protect Dr. Croft and his practice from scandal and collapse Nora must learn to play a new and uncomfortable role-that of a proper young lady. But pretense has its limits. Nora cannot turn away and ignore the suffering of patients, even if it means giving Gibson the power to ruin everything she's worked for. And when she makes a discovery that could change the field forever, Nora faces an impossible choice. Remain invisible and let the men around her take credit for her work, or step into the light-even if it means being destroyed by her own legacy. Fans of The Other Einstein and The Paris Library will relish this riveting and empowering story about one woman's fight to follow her dreams and build a life-and legacy-beyond what is expected of her. Praise for The Girl in His Shadow: "A suspenseful story of a courageous young woman determined to become a surgeon in repressive Victorian England. Fluidly written, impeccably researched, The Girl in His Shadow is a memorable literary gift to be read, reread, and treasured."-Gloria Goldreich, author of The Paris Children Other Bestselling Historical Fiction from Sourcebooks Landmark: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
The Irish Boer Woman is the second volume of the Brigid O’Meara trilogy (the first part was England Wants Your Gold, printed in 2015) that follows the life of an adventurous young Irish woman who is drawn into the intrigues and violence of the Jameson Raid of 1895, and later incarcerated in a British concentration camp during the Anglo Boer War for assisting active Boer commandos. As an Irish nationalist, Brigid finds herself in the midst of a clash of cultures and worldviews. She is drawn into the conflict of the Anglo Boer War by identifying and entering the struggle of the Boers of the Transvaal to retain their independence, putting her into direct conflict with British authorities representing an expanding global empire. Adding to her emotional turmoil is her romantic involvement with a British Uitlander, who is facing charges of high treason by the Transvaal Boer Government. Through the characters, the reader enters the harrowing realities of a war in which the two Boer Republics mobilized every man between 16 and 60 with no uniform, no money and no formal training to take on the might of the British Empire.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'A DAZZLING DEBUT' SARAH WINMAN 'FOR FANS OF ELENA FERRANTE...STUNNING' WOMAN'S WEEKLY 'VIVID AND AUTHENTIC' WASHINGTON POST 'NAOMI KRUPITSKY'S WORDS SING...I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' JOANNA GLEN 'GRIPPING...A TENSE, NUANCED DEBUT' PLATINUM 'VIVIDLY-DRAWN...BEAUTIFUL. I LOVED IT!' CHRISTINA SWEENEY-BAIRD *A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick* *Book of the Month club* *One of Cosmopolitan's Best Historical Fiction of 2021* *One of PopSugar's Best New Books of 2021* ________________________________________________________ A captivating debut novel about the tangled fates of two best friends and daughters of the Italian mafia, and a coming-of-age story of twentieth-century Brooklyn itself. Two daughters. Two families. One inescapable fate. Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, loud and untamed. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends since birth, they live in the shadow of their fathers' unspoken community: the Family. Sunday dinners gather them each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love. But the disappearance of Antonia's father drives a whisper-thin wedge between the girls as they grow into women, wives, mothers, and leaders. And as they push against the boundaries of society's expectations and fight to preserve their complex but life-sustaining friendship, one fateful night their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested. Only one of them can pull the trigger before it's too late. For fans of Elena Ferrante and Maggie O'Farrell, The Family introduces a stunning new voice in literary fiction. 'A tense, engrossing novel'Booklist, starred review 'A riveting story powerful in its realism' Diane Chamberlain, author of Big Lies in a Small Town 'A tremendous debut' Fiona Davis, author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue 'Loyalty, love, loss and redemption take this well told tale to a searing conclusion' Adriana Trigiani 'Krupitsky beautifully captures Sofia and Antonia's day-to-day lives under never-ending tension' Publishers Weekly 'Fast-paced and readable' Kirkus Reviews 'A nuanced evocation of lifelong female friendship in all its shifting, messy, gorgeous complexity' Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light 'Lyrical, gripping, and richly evocative' Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth and Bonnie 'Sweeping and consuming' Susie Orman Schnall, author of We Came Here to Shine 'A powerful story of friendship and loyalty...exquisite' Jennifer S. Brown, author of Modern Girls
Secluded and snowed in ...with the brooding Earl Runaway debutante Henrietta Harvey will never live down the mortification of accidentally slipping into Lord Hauxton's bed. So imagine her horror upon discovering they're snowed in together the next morning! And yet Henrietta comes to find this gruff, cold man has an intriguingly warmer side. Still, hiding a secret that would shock the ton, she's resigned to becoming a spinster. Unless she can trust him with the truth before the snow melts... |
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