Historical Fiction
The vaster wilds
Lauren Groff
FICTION Groff Lauren
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
"A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her. Lauren Groff's new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how--and if--we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves."
The Golden Doves
Martha Hall Kelly
OverDrive eBook
Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Suspense
Two former female spies, bound together by their past, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II—a pulse-pounding novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls “Martha Hall Kelly deftly illuminates little-known complexities of the post-war era while painting a vivid portrait of the deep scars and trauma that Holocaust survivors carried.”—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Sapphire American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother, a celebrated Jewish singer who joined her daughter in Paris when the world seemed bright. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again. A decade later the Doves fall headlong into a dangerous dual mission: Josie is working for U.S. Army Intelligence and accepts an assignment to hunt down the infamous doctor, while a mysterious man tells Arlette he may have found her son. The Golden Doves embark on a quest across Europe and ultimately to French Guiana, discovering a web of terrible secrets, and must put themselves in grave danger to finally secure justice and protect the ones they love. Martha Hall Kelly has garnered acclaim for her stunning combination of empathy and research into the stories of women throughout history and for exploring the terrors of Ravensbrück. With The Golden Doves, she has crafted an unforgettable story about the fates of Nazi fugitives in the wake of World War II—and the unsung female spies who risked it all to bring them to justice.
These characters are fictional but they went through some real stuff. Simultaneously sad and exciting, I had to put it down a few times but I always came back. -Mykle
Beyond that, the sea
Laura Spence-Ash
FICTION Spence-Ash, Laura
Historical Fiction
"A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own. As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she'll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she'll stay safe. Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England. As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life-summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea-the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends. Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own. As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love"--
I really found this novel captivating. Told from many different points of view, the novel centers on Beatrix, who is sent to the United States as part of a program to evacuate children from London during the Blitz. We hear from her parents as they wring their hands on sending her away, the family in Boston who take her in, and of course, Bea herself. Bea grows up in America, comes of age, and has hopes, triumphs, as well as disappointments. But she has to go back. This is one of those novels that you are unsure what the right course is: does she belong in London or in Boston? What does Bea want? This evacuation has consequences that reverberate through her life and the lives of her family, both paternal and found. -Anne M
The midnight news
Jo Baker
FICTION Baker Jo
Historical Fiction
"From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a gripping novel of one young woman's unraveling during the Blitz-a story of WWII intrigue, love, and danger. It is 1940 and bombs are falling on London. Watching from her attic window, Charlotte sees enemy planes flying in over the city and her neighbours' homes turning to rubble. Still grieving for her beloved brother who never returned from France, Charlotte has moved away from her overbearing father and built a new life for herself. She works as a typist for the Ministry of Information, rents a room in a ramshackle house, and shares gin and confidences with her best friend, Elena. Every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after each heartbreaking loss Charlotte comes to fear that something-or someone-else is responsible. Who is the shadow man that seems to be following her? Is her mind playing tricks? Her nerves increasingly frayed, she soon finds her very freedom under threat. . . Utterly riveting and hypnotic, The Midnight News is a love story, a war story, and an unforgettable journey into the fragile mind and fierce heart of an extraordinary young woman"--
I read a lot of fiction set during World War II. If you like historical fiction, the period is pretty unavoidable. I have never read anything quite like this take on the Blitz. Normally the Brits muddle through this experience in novels (stiff upper lip and all that). They go to work. They meet with friends. They put up their black out curtains. But Jo Baker tosses this narrative right out with this novel. Yes, the main character Charlotte goes to work, meets with friends, and puts up her black out curtains. But she experiences significant psychological distress. She isn't sleeping (who could when the neighborhood is bombed every night?). Her friends and neighbors are dying. And she isn't quite sure her ministry typing job is amounting to any help at all. She starts questioning a great deal and also believes she is being followed--catching the eye of her estranged family. Is it madness or is the Blitz covering for something menacing out there? -Anne M
The postcard
Anne Berest
FICTION Berest Anne
Historical Fiction
"Anne Berest's The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. Luminous and gripping to the very last page, it is an enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life. January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest's maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques--all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling that shatters long-held certainties about Anne's family, her country, and herself." --
To cut to the chase, I couldn't put this novel down. It is a research mystery about a family past, which I loved. It is also beautifully written. It is also a novel rooted in truth. There really was a postcard and it was really sent to Anne Berest's mother. And Anne Berest and her mother did conduct this family research. But the fictionalized elements fill in the gap of the history that was erased--the stories of Berest's great-grandparents and great aunt and uncle could not pass down. Their memories were extinguished at Auschwitz If you appreciate the role that novels play in showing you something, "The Postcard" is the novel that encapsulates the idea of inherited trauma. -Anne M
The house is on fire
Rachel Beanland
FICTION Beanland Rachel
Historical Fiction
Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that's done looking for enlightenment in a church. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn't give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater's managers, he'll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he'll have to buy her freedom first. When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.
Rachel Beanland got some buzz for her “Florence Adler Swims Forever.” Her second historical fiction novel is set in 1811 and follows four people who survive the Great Richmond Theatre Fire. There is Sally, the daughter of Patrick Henry who is recently widowed and grieving for her husband, Cecily an enslaved woman in an impossible situation, Jack a young stagehand who is looking for a career as an actor, and Gilbert, a blacksmith working extra hard to buy his freedom as well as his wife’s. These people end up getting caught in this horrific tragic event—and there are severe consequences as well as new opportunities that each person is handed in survival. I will say the first quarter of the book is grim and deals with death and mayhem as we see through the character’s eyes what it takes to survive. I needed some breaks while reading it. It is haunting. -Anne M
The Manningtree Witches
A. K. Blakemore
OverDrive Audiobook
Historical Fiction
England, 1643. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices. Rebecca West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only occasionally by her infatuation with the handsome young clerk John Edes. But then a newcomer, who identifies himself as the Witchfinder General, arrives. A mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about what the women on the margins of this diminished community are up to. Dangerous rumors of covens, pacts, and bodily wants have begun to hang over women like Rebecca—and the future is as frightening as it is thrilling. Brimming with contemporary energy and resonance, The Manningtree Witches plunges its listeners into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust, and betrayal run amok as a nation's arrogant male institutions start to realize that the very people they've suppressed for so long may be about to rise up and claim their freedom.
If you like your historical fiction with new perspectives on old stories with imagery for prose, look no further than "The Manningtree Witches." Blakemore takes on the history of Matthew Hopkins, 17th century witchfinder and author of "The Discovery of Witches," a text used to prosecute many English women. His arrival into Manningtree, his methods, and the consequences for the town are told in an empathetic and insightful way by Blakemore through the eyes of Rebecca West, a young woman deeply intertwined in the saga. Sofia Zervudachi's narration makes it difficult to put this one down. -Anne M
The London Séance Society
Sarah Penner
FICTION Penner Sarah
Mystery, Historical Fiction, Suspense
"1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark šance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D'Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike. Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister's death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London's exclusive Šance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves..."--
Penner offers up another mystery tale involving murder and desperate circumstances for the protagonists. Although not as engaging a tale as her The Lost Apothecary was (a little too much revisiting of things already established for my tastes and a sense of it being rushed) she really develops a pretty detailed slice of Victorian England life, featuring good twists, turns and revelations, and a collection of interesting characters, both major and minor. -Paul
Loyalty
Lisa Scottoline
OverDrive Audiobook
Historical Fiction
Loyalty can save a soul—or destroy one. Franco Fiorvanti is a handsome lemon grower toiling on the estate of a baron. He dreams of owning his own grove, but the rigid class system of Sicily thwarts his ambition. Determined to secure a better future, Franco will do anything to prove his loyalty to the baron. But when the baron asks him to kidnap a little boy named Dante, Franco makes a decision that will change his life—and even the history of Sicily—forever. Gaetano Catalano is an idealistic young lawyer whose devotion to justice is tantamount to a calling. He’s a member of the Beati Paoli, a real-life secret society of aristocrats who investigate crime in Palermo, a city riddled with graft. Gaetano sets out to find the boy and punish the kidnapper, but his mission leads him to a darker place than he had ever imagined. Meanwhile, Mafalda Pancari is a new mother rejoicing at the birth of her daughter, Lucia, when disaster strikes. And Alfredo D’Antonio is a reclusive goatherd under constant threat of being discovered as a Jew. How the lives of these unforgettable characters collide makes Loyalty an epic tale of good versus evil, as the story twists and turns to its monumental showdown. Readers will be transported to the dramatic and ruggedly beautiful island of Sicily, the jewel of the Mediterranean, where lush lemon groves and mouth-watering cuisine contrast with a turbulent history of colonization and corruption. Scottoline brings her decades of thriller writing to historical fiction, creating in Loyalty a singular novel that no reader will be able to put down.
Transport yourself to the lemon orchards of 19th century Sicily with Lisa Scottoline's epic novel about the rise of the Mafia. Following the threads of several stories, the characters are engaging and novel is riveting. It is a great read for the summer. Like always, Edoardo Ballerini provides a fantastic narration. -Anne M
Hamnet : a novel of the plague
O'Farrell, Maggie, 1972- author.
FICTION O'Farrell, Maggie
Fiction, Historical Fiction
England, 1580. A young Latin tutor-- penniless, bullied by a violent father-- falls in love with an eccentric young woman who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer.
Added by Casey
A lot of “pandemic novels” are coming out right now—at least narratives inspired by or written during the pandemic and everything that happened within that time. They provide a window into what authors were thinking about, working through, or grappling with during the height of the pandemic. Lauren Groff’s thinking was pretty bleak. Her thoughts turned to the “Starving Time” of Jamestown: crops failed, disease flourished, and those that survived ate everything. The narrative centers on a white servant girl, who is called many different names in her short life, and her decision to run away from the colonial settlement and strike out on her own in hopes of finding the French. She is hungry and afraid in the settlement and what is unknown to her beyond the palisade holds better chances for survival. The story follows her during those first few weeks with glimpses into how she found herself on this side of the Atlantic. This survival novel is engrossing, and it takes on quite a few subjects: colonization, land use, 17th century religion, and the oppressively hierarchical structure of English society. But also, what does it mean to be human when you are alone? What does real survival mean? Groff left me with more questions than answers, but good novelists do that. -Anne M