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Historical Fiction October 2020
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| Northernmost by Peter GeyeWhat it's about: the parallel narratives of two members of a Norwegian family living a century apart -- tundra-stranded 19th-century fisherman Odd Einar and modern day Minnesota journalist Greta Nansen -- and their shared struggles with isolation, grief, and marital problems.
Series alert: This is the 3rd and final entry in Peter Geye's series following the Eide family, preceded by The Lighthouse Road and Wintering. |
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| The Two Mrs. Carlyles by Suzanne RindellStarring: Violet, a resourceful young woman who grew up in a San Francisco orphanage and has recently married a wealthy man; Violet's new husband Harry Carlyle, who says first wife Madeleine died in the massive earthquake that recently hit the city (in 1906).
For fans of: Daphne DuMaurier's classic novel Rebecca, which inspired this novel's gothic tone and Violet's suspicious curiosity about her husband's first wife. |
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The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula HegiWhat it's about: When an 1878 tidal wave claims three children from Germany’s island of Nordstrand, three women — including a grieving mother, a seamstress and a young girl on the brink of giving birth — help each other in unanticipated ways. Who might enjoy it: fans of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. Reviewers say: "Hegi presents fortunate readers with a new tour de force...Her women, whether conniving, tender, or briskly competent, will draw you into their welcoming arms. Thoroughly recommended." --Historical Novel Society
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The Wright Sister by Patty DannWhat it is: An epistolary novel of historical fiction that imagines the life of Katharine Wright and her relationship with her famous brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright. What it's about: After Wilbur passed away, Katharine lived with and took care of her increasingly reclusive brother Orville, who often turned to his more confident and supportive sister to help him through fame and fortune. But when Katharine became engaged to their mutual friend, Harry Haskell, Orville felt abandoned and betrayed. As the years went on, the siblings grew further and further apart. Why you might enjoy it: An inspiring and poignant chronicle of feminism, family, and forgiveness, The Wright Sister is an unforgettable portrait of a woman, a sister of inventors, who found a way to reinvent herself.
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| Jack by Marilynne RobinsonSeries alert: Jack is the 4th novel starring the characters from the Gilead series, which began as a letter from dying Presbyterian minister John Ames Broughton to his son and spans events from the Civil War to the 1950s.
This time with more...moving, star-crossed romance (it's 1957 and the titular Jack's love interest is Della, a Black woman he met in St. Louis); well-crafted dialogue (much of the story unfolds in conversations between Jack and Della); and reflections on faith (in the divine and in each other). |
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The Sword and the Spear by Mia CoutoWhat it's about: As war rages between the Portuguese occupiers and the Mozambique warriors in 1895, Imani embarks on a rescue mission for her lover, the defeated Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo. About the series: This is the second book in Sands of the Emperor trilogy following the debut title, Woman of the Ashes. Reviewers say: The narrative works to set the table for the concluding volume, particularly as Couto's isolated characters barrel toward each other near the novel's climax . . . Couto's protagonists remain consistently fascinating. Readers of the first installment will appreciate this. --Publishers Weekly
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| Here We Are by Graham SwiftWhat it is: an engaging, character-driven story set in postwar Brighton, where a dying artform has one last great summer thanks to an equally doomed variety act.
The players: show emcee Jack Robinson, the "Compere Comedian"; Jack's army buddy Ronnie Deane, who performs sleight-of-hand as "The Great Pablo"; Evie White, newly hired as the proverbial magician's "lovely assistant" until she becomes much more than that to both men she shares the stage with. |
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| The City of Brass by S.A. ChakrabortyThe setting: Eighteenth-century Cairo, where a young woman who survives as a con artist accidentally summons a djinn, who takes her back to the parallel world of the djinn to face her destiny.
Reviewers say: "This lyrical historical fantasy debut brings to vivid life the ancient mythological traditions of an Islamic world unfamiliar to most American readers" (Library Journal). |
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| First Cosmic Velocity by Zach PowersThe setting: It's 1964 and the USSR is completely trouncing the West in the space race. Or at least that's what the determined, inscrutable chief of the Soviet space program wants the world to believe.
The plan: to use pairs of twins (one sent on the mission and one left behind) to hide the fact that no one makes it safely back to Earth, and never tell anyone -- not even Khrushchev himself, who so believes in the program that he volunteers his own pet dog for an upcoming spaceflight. |
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| The Underground Railroad by Colson WhiteheadThe setting: an antebellum South that looks quite like the one in our reality, only the Underground Railroad literally has train tracks, inspiring the slavecatchers to create increasingly bizarre, elaborate, and disturbing obstacles between escapees and their freedom.
Reviewers say: "Imagine a runaway slave novel written with Joseph Heller's deadpan voice leasing both Frederick Douglass' grim realities and H.P. Lovecraft's rococo fantasies" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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