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Historical Fiction January 2018
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| Mrs. Osmond: A Novel by John BanvilleStarring: Isabel Archer, heroine of The Portrait of a Lady, in a sequel to Henry James' classic novel.
Book buzz: Critics are raving about this "superb Henry James pastiche" (The Guardian), an "epochal act of imitation, salutation, and imagination" (NPR) that evokes "James's limpid prose, deft plotting, and finely limned characterization" (Library Journal, starred review).
You might also like: Colm Tóibín's The Master, an introspective novel that examines Henry James' personal life. |
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White Chrysanthemum
by Mary Lynn Bracht
What it's about: Having spent her entire youth under Japanese occupation, a young woman in World War II-era Korea follows in her mother's footsteps as an elite female diver, only to be forced into prostitution in order to save her beloved younger sister.
About the author: An American author of Korean descent living in London, Mary grew up in a large ex-pat community of women who came of age in postwar South Korea.
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Song of Batoche
by Maia Caron
What it's about: Louis Riel arrives at Batoche in 1884 to help the Métis fight for their lands and discovers that the rebellious outsider Josette Lavoie, granddaughter of the famous chief Big Bear, learns of Riel's hidden agenda — to establish a separate state with his new church at its head — and refuses to help him. As the Dominion Army marches on Batoche, Josette, and Gabriel Dumont, must manage Riel's escalating religious fanaticism and a growing attraction to each other.
About the author: Maia Caron was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. When in her twenties, she discovered that she was Métis. Maia is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and lives in Toronto.
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| Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer ChiaveriniIntroducing: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace: the mathematician (and daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron) who's widely considered to be the first computer programmer.
Why you might like it: This fictional memoir illuminates Ada's complicated personal life as well as her professional partnerships with Charles Babbage and Mary Somerville.
Try this next: Joan Spicci's Beyond the Limit, about Sofya Kovalevskaya, stars another unconventional 19th-century woman mathematician. |
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| The Last Man in Europe by Dennis GloverWhat it is: A fictionalized account of the last decade of writer Eric Blair's (a.k.a. George Orwell's) life, which reveals the events and experiences that influenced some of the author's best-known works.
Why you might like it: This compelling novel places its complex protagonist in a race against time (and tuberculosis) as he struggles to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four. |
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Impossible Saints
by Clarissa Harwood
What it's about: In 1907 England, village school mistress Lilia Brooke joins the militant Women's Social and Political Union to advocate for the vote, free unions, and contraception, which Anglican priest Paul aims to become the youngest deal of St. John's Cathedral, but these two people on different paths have one thing in common: a tragic affection for each other.
About the author: Clarissa Harwood is a part-time university instructor and full-time grammar nerd who loves to explain the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. She lives in London, Ontario.
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| Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors by Conn IgguldenWhat it's about: This concluding volume of the Wars of the Roses series traces the fall of the Plantagenets and the rise of the Tudors.
For fans of: the intricate dynastic politics of Sharon Kay Penman's historical sagas and the fast-paced, visceral military action of Bernard Cornwell's novels.
You might also like: Philippa Gregory's Cousins' War series, which depicts this period from the perspective of the women involved. |
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The Winter Station
by Jody Shields
What it's about: An aristocratic Russian doctor stationed in the railway outpost city of Kharbin in Manchuria races to contain a deadly plague before it spreads to the rest of the world.
About the author: Formerly Design Editor of the New York Times magazine and a Contributing Editor of American Vogue, Jody Shields is also a screenwriter and a collected artist. She is a resident of New York City.
Also by this author: The Fig Eater and The Crimson Portrait.
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| Moloka'i by Alan BrennertWhat it's about: At age 7, Honolulu resident Rachel Kalama contracts leprosy (Hansen's disease). Forcibly separated from her family, she spends the next several decades in the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, where she builds a life for herself.
Further reading: To learn more about the history of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement and its 8,500-plus inhabitants, pick up John Tayman's nonfiction book, The Colony. |
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| A Piece of the World: A Novel by Christina Baker KlineFeaturing: Christina Olson, a disabled woman who lives a solitary life on her family's farm in rural Maine before befriending artist Andrew Wyeth and becoming the subject of his iconic painting, "Christina's World."
For fans of: engaging and richly detailed historical novels that imagine the creation of famous artworks, such as Gloria Goldreich's The Bridal Chair or Maureen Gibbon's Paris Red. |
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| The Wind Is Not a River: A Novel by Brian PaytonWhat it's about: In 1943, journalist John Easley embeds with a bomber crew headed for the Japanese-occupied Aleutian Islands. Shot down over the island of Attu, John and aviator Karl Bitburg must survive while evading enemy soldiers.
Why you might like it: Focusing on the only World War II battle to be fought on North American soil, this compelling novel movingly recreates a little-known historical event through the eyes of its sympathetic characters. |
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| The Light Between Oceans: A Novel by M.L. StedmanWhat it's about: An emotionally scarred World War I veteran becomes a lighthouse keeper on a small island off the coast of Australia. When a boat washes ashore carrying an infant girl, he and his wife decide to keep the baby -- a decision with far-reaching consequences.
You might also like: Karen Viggers' The Lightkeeper's Wife, another moving novel about a lighthouse keeper who starts an unconventional family on an isolated island off the coast of Australia. |
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