Historical Fiction
Once upon a river : a novel
Diane Setterfield
FICTION Setterfield, Diane
Fiction, Suspense, Historical Fiction
On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, a wounded stranger carries in the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later the girl stirs, and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Magic? As the days pass the child remains mute and unable to answer questions. Three families are keen to claim her: the wealthy mother of a kidnapped daughter missing for two years; a farming family sure it is their son's secret daughter; a parson's housekeeper, reminded of her younger sister. Each family has secrets, must be revealed before the girl's identity can be known. -- adapted from jacket
The Paragon Hotel
Lyndsay Faye
FICTION Faye Lyndsay
Historical Fiction
Fleeing to Oregon from New York City in 1921, Alice James takes refuge in the city's only black hotel and helps new friends search for a missing child, hide from KKK violence, and navigate painful secrets.
Lyndsay Faye writes some really good, suspenseful historical fiction and The Paragon Hotel is no exception. Set during Prohibition, Faye really captures the city of Portland in the early 1920's, the unease of the post-war years, and vividly brings a variety of characters to life. -Anne M
The winter soldier
Daniel (Daniel Philippe) Mason
FICTION Mason Daniel
Historical Fiction, Fiction
"Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. But when he arrives--at a commandeered church tucked away high in a remote valley of the Carpathian Mountains--he discovers a freezing outpost ravaged by typhus. The other doctors have fled, and only a single mysterious nurse named Sister Margarete remains. But Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel. And as the war rages across the winter landscape, he finds himself falling in love with the woman from whom he must learn a brutal makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow, his uniform stuffed with strange drawings. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient, and nurse forever"--Provided by publisher.
Someone told me to read this book several times and I am glad I listened to them. For a 300 page book, Mason really threads this story together with well-executed plot and thorough character development, as well as an ending that is fitting, yet surprising. If you like historical fiction, really exploring a place and time, I highly recommend "The Winter Soldier." -Anne M
The air you breathe
Frances de Pontes Peebles
FICTION Peebles Frances
Fiction, Historical Fiction
An orphan, Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when she meets Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron. Born to wildly different worlds, the girls quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music. One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become the only way out of the life to which each was born... but only one is destined to be a star. -- adapted from jacket.
"When Sofia Salvador finished a show, applause wasn't an obligation, but a release. Without even realizing it, you'd held your breath and tensed your body while she sang, as if you were afraid that even the smallest movement would startle her away. But as soon as she bowed and thanked you, every emotion she'd dredged up inside you was suddenly clamoring to be let loose. How could you not clap, howl, whistle, and call for one more? One more! Please, just one more? And of course, Sofia Salvador always relented." If you are in the mood for something lyrical that provides a great sense of place with a focus on character development and friendship, look no further than Frances de Pontes Peebles' The Air You Breathe. Set in Brazil, this is a story of two women, Dores and Graca, who are from very different backgrounds (yet from the same plantation) who love samba. They run away to Lapa and develop an act, but it quickly becomes apparent that it is Graca (as the stage name Sofia Salvador) that everyone wants to hear. The story is told from Dores' point of view as she struggles with being forced in the shadow of Graca's fame, while trying to find her own voice. I alternated between the print and the audiobook. Rebecca Mozo's reading of the book is fantastic. -Anne M
The last hours
Minette Walters
FICTION Walters Minette
Historical Fiction
When the Black Death enters England through the port of Melcombe in Dorseteshire in June 1348, no one knows what manner of sickness it is or how it spreads and kills so quickly. The Church cites God as the cause, and religious fear grips the people as they come to believe that the plague is a punishment for wickedness. But Lady Anne of Develish has her own ideas. Educated by nuns, Anne is a rarity among women, being both literate and knowledgeable. With her brutal husband absent from Develish when news of this pestilence reaches her, she takes the decision to look for more sensible ways to protect her people than daily confessions of sin. Well-versed in the importance of isolating the sick from the well, she withdraws her people inside the moat that surrounds her manor house and refuses entry even to her husband. She makes an enemy of her daughter and her husband's steward by doing so, but her resolve is strengthened by the support of her leading serfs ... until food stocks run low and the nerves of all are tested by continued confinement and ignorance of what is happening in the world outside. The people of Develish are alive. But for how long? And what will they discover when the time comes for them to cross the moat?
This is a quick read. For a novel about the plague, 14th Century England, and manor living, it is actually pretty fun and pretty light--I say this even though such a book comes with discussions and descriptions of some pretty gory and unsettling situations (Walters is a murder mystery writer). If anything, I wish the characters were a little more complicated. Lady Anne is so good and kind--and so righteous; the villains terrible through and through. I personally prefer that characters achieve some growth. -Anne M
Beyond the bright sea
Lauren Wolk
jFICTION Wolk Lauren
Historical Fiction, Kids
Set adrift on the ocean in a small skiff as a newborn, twelve-year-old Crow embarks on a quest to find the missing pieces of her history.
This is the perfect book for an end of summer read. -Anne M
White Houses
Amy Bloom
Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt's first presidential campaign. She is not instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. As their connection deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. After she takes a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his death.
This was a beautifully written story of the love that Lorena Hickok had for Eleanor Roosevelt. -Angie
The Hamilton affair : a novel
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman
FICTION Cobbshof Elizabet
Historical Fiction, Romance
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Revolution, and featuring a cast of iconic characters such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette, The Hamilton Affair tells the sweeping, tumultuous, true love story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, from tremulous beginning to bittersweet ending—his at a dueling ground on the shores of the Hudson River, hers more than half a century later after a brave, successful life.
This is for fans of Hamilton-the-Musical or a solid historical narrative focusing on female characters or historical romance. -Angie
Washington Black : a novel
Esi Edugyan
FICTION Edugyan Esi
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await him. But Christopher Wilde, or "Titch," is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor, and abolitionist. He initiates Wash into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky; where two people, separated by an impossible divide, might begin to see each other as human; and where a boy born in chains can embrace a life of dignity and meaning. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, Titch abandons everything to save him. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic, where Wash, left on his own, must invent another new life.
Added by Jason
Warlight
Michael Ondaatje
FICTION Ondaatje Michael
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Decades after World War II, Nathaniel Williams reflects on his experiences in 1945, when his parents left him and his sister in the care of a mysterious neighbor.
Added by Jason
I loved this book! It has everything I want in a good read: great writing, a crescendo of narrative, interesting characters with intertwined lives, a sense of place, and an absorbing mystery--all wrapped up in historical fiction. This is a story about storytelling--the characters tell stories, the narrator tells stories, so if you like feeling very much the reader--feeling like you are listening to someone tell you a story, this is a good pick for you. It will get you through the last few weeks of winter. -Anne M