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Historical Fiction July 2017
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| Lilli de Jong: A Novel by Janet BentonIn 1883 Philadelphia, Quaker schoolteacher Lilli de Jong finds herself faced with a seemingly impossible task: how can she keep her infant daughter after being cast out by her family, abandoned by her fiancé, and rejected by society? After the unexpected death of her beloved mother, a prominent Quaker in their Germantown community, Lilli de Jong's once-orderly life becomes increasingly unrecognizable. Her father eschews their faith by marrying a cousin from outside their religious community, and Lilli is forced to forfeit her position as a teacher. Shortly thereafter, her brother and her fiancé, Johann, leave for Pittsburgh to try their luck at the ironworks, promising to send for Lilli once they establish themselves. After succumbing to passion the night before Johann's departure, Lilli soon finds herself unwed and pregnant, the subject of scandal. Retreating to a charitable home for wronged women, Lilli intends to give her daughter up for adoption. But when she grasps the Dickensian life awaiting Charlotte as the castoff of an unmarried woman, Lilli resolves that whatever their future may be, mother and child must stay together. And so she embarks upon the herculean task of providing for herself and her daughter, while at every turn the pair are beset by judgment, misogyny, and misunderstanding. Lilli de Jong is a historical saga, an intimate romance, and a lasting testament to the transformative power of motherhood. |
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| The Lost History of Stars by Dave BolingThe Venter family are Afrikaners, white settlers of Dutch ancestry living in South Africa's Transvaal. In 1900, British soldiers destroy their farm and send them to a concentration camp. Narrated by 13-year-old Lettie Venter, this moving novel describes the family's struggle to survive imprisonment during the Second Anglo-Boer War. For more character-driven fiction that examines this conflict, try Giles Foden's Ladysmith, Wilbur Smith's The Sound of Thunder, or Ingrid Winterbach's To Hell with Cronje. |
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Seven stones to stand or fall : a collection of Outlander fiction
by Diana Gabaldon
A magnificent collection of short fiction--including two never-before-published novellas--featuring Jamie Fraser, Lord John Grey, Master Raymond, and many more, all extending the story of Outlander in thrilling new directions "The Custom of the Army" begins with Lord John Grey being shocked by an electric eel and ends at the Battle of Quebec. Then comes "The Space Between," which features a revelation about the Comte St. Germain, Master Raymond, and a widowed young wine dealer escorts a would-be novice to a convent in Paris. In "A Plague of Zombies," Lord John unexpectedly becomes military governor of Jamaica when the original governor is gnawed by what probably wasn't a giant rat. "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows" is the moving story of Roger MacKenzie's parents during World War II. In "Virgins," Jamie Fraser, aged nineteen, and Ian Murray, aged twenty, become mercenaries in France, no matter that neither has yet bedded a lass or killed a man. But they're trying. "A Fugitive Green" is the story of Lord John's elder brother, Hal, and a seventeen-year-old rare book dealer with a sideline in theft, forgery, and blackmail. And finally, in "Besieged," Lord John learns that his mother is in Havana--and that the British Navy is on their way to lay siege to the city. Filling in mesmerizing chapters in the lives of characters readers have followed over the course of thousands of pages, Gabaldon's genius is on full display throughout this must-have collection.
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| There Your Heart Lies by Mary GordonRebelling against her privileged upbringing, 19-year-old Marian Taylor (of the Newport and Park Avenue Taylors) marries her dead brother's lover, a Jewish doctor, and accompanies him to Spain, where she witnesses firsthand the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. Shifting between 1936 and the present day, when Marian's granddaughter begins researching her family history, this moving novel may appeal to fans of Victoria Hislop's The Return, in which a British woman discovers her Spanish roots, or María Dueñas' The Time In Between, which depicts Franco's Spain through the eyes of a seamstress. |
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| Isadora: A Novel by Amelia GrayIn 1913, dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan is at the height of her fame when a freak accident claims the lives of her two young children. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a grief-stricken Isadora flees Paris and spends a year traveling Europe, where she slowly comes to terms with her loss. Isadora's viewpoint alternates with those of her sister and her wealthy lover in this emotionally intense and introspective novel, which uses rich sensory detail and lyrical prose to place readers inside the minds of its complex characters. |
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| Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa WingateBorn on a shantyboat in the Mississippi River, 12-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings are taken from their impoverished parents by the Tennessee Children's Home Society and placed in a Memphis orphanage. As Rill recounts her struggle to keep her sisters and brother together, present-day scenes hint at the family's fate. Inspired by a real-life scandal in which children stolen from their families were sold to wealthy childless couples, Before We Were Yours is a good bet for fans of Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train. |
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The autumn throne : a novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine
by Elizabeth Chadwick
Imprisoned by her husband. Separated from her children. If King Henry II thought these things would push his queen into submission, he was wrong. Eleanor of Aquitaine refused to give into his tyranny. Freed by his death, she became dowager Queen of England. But the competition for land and power that Henry bred among his sons had grown into a dangerous rivalry that Eleanor must skillfully control. Eleanor would need every ounce of courage and fortitude as she crossed the Alps in winter to bring her son Richard his bride, ransom him from imprisonment and deal with his brother John's treachery. Her indomitable spirit would be tested to its limits as she attempted to keep the peace between her warring sons, fend off enemies, and negotiate a magnificent future for a chosen granddaughter.
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Between two fires
by Mark Noce
Saxon barbarians threaten to destroy medieval Wales. Lady Branwen becomes Wales' last hope to unite their divided kingdoms when her father betroths her to a powerful Welsh warlord, the Hammer King. But the fledgling alliance is fraught with enemies from within and without as Branwen becomes the target of assassination attempts and courtly intrigue. A young woman in a world of fierce warriors, she seeks to assert her own authority and preserve Wales against the barbarians. But when she falls for a young hedge knight named Artagan, her world threatens to tear itself apart. Caught between her duty to her people and her love of a man she cannot have, Branwen must choose whether to preserve her royal marriage or to follow her heart. Somehow she must save her people and remain true to herself, before Saxon invaders and a mysterious traitor try to destroy her. Reminiscent of classics like The Mists of Avalon and A Game of Thrones, and newer popular titles like Hild by Nicola Griffith, Branwen's story combines elements of mystery and romance with Noce's gift for storytelling.
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The last Tudor
by Philippa Gregory
Seventeen-year-old Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king's half-sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner's block, where Jane transformed her father's greedy power-grab into tragic martyrdom. "Learn you to die," was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and fall in love. But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine's pregnancy betrays her secret marriage she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister's scaffold. "Farewell, my sister," writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth's suspicious glare. After seeing her sisters defy the queen, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger, but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Queen Elizabeth?
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The scribe of Siena : a novel
by Melodie Winawer
Equal parts transporting love story and gripping historical conspiracy, debut author Melodie Winawer takes readers deep into medieval Italy, where the past and present blur and a twenty-first century woman will discover a plot to destroy Siena. Accomplished neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato knows that her deep empathy for her patients is starting to impede her work. So when her beloved brother passes away, she welcomes the unexpected trip to the Tuscan city of Siena to resolve his estate, even as she wrestles with grief. But as she delves deeper into her brother's affairs, she discovers intrigue she never imagined--a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city. After uncovering the journal and paintings of Gabriele Accorsi, the fourteenth-century artist at the heart of the plot, Beatrice finds a startling image of her own face and is suddenly transported to the year 1347. She awakens in a Siena unfamiliar to her, one that will soon be hit by the Plague. Yet when Beatrice meets Accorsi, something unexpected happens: she falls in love--not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena's very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs. The Scribe of Siena is the captivating story of a brilliant woman's passionate affair with a time and a place that captures her in an impossibly romantic and dangerous trap--testing the strength of fate and the bonds of love.
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