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Historical Fiction March 2020
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| A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor AnstrutherThe premise: The aristocratic Campbell family needs an heir, and after her brother is killed in World War I, independent-minded Enid caves to parental pressure and marries a man she doesn't love.
The problem: Besides losing her sense of self, each of Enid's pregnancies worsens her mental health and drives her deeper into her religion, and desperation soon drives her to leave her family for a Christian Scientist retreat -- a decision that will have dramatic consequences for the next several decades. |
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The Girl in the Painting
by Tea Cooper
Maitland 1913. Miss Elizabeth Quinn is something of an institution in Maitland Town. For longer than anyone can remember she and her brother, businessman Michael, have lived in the impressive two-storey stone house next to the church. When she is discovered cowering in the corner of the exhibition gallery at the Technical College the entire town knows something strange has come to pass. Mathematical savant Jane Piper is determined to find out. Deposited on the doorstep of the local orphanage as a baby, she owes her life and education to the Quinns's philanthropic ventures and Elizabeth has no one else to turn to. As the past and the present converge, Elizabeth's grip on reality loosens. Can Jane, with her logical brain and penchant for puzzles, unravel Elizabeth's story before it is too late?
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The Last Letter from Juliet
by Melanie Hudson
A 92-year-old woman must keep her promise made long ago to tell her powerful story, in this stunning World War II romance novel that is Me Before You meets The English Patient.
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The Land Beyond the Sea
by Sharon Kay Penman
The young ruler of 12th-century Jerusalem finds his efforts to protect his people complicated by his lifelong struggles with leprosy, threats against his power and a limited number of trustworthy advisors. By the best-selling author of A King’s Ransom.
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Chimes of a lost cathedral
by Janet Fitch
Pregnant and adrift in the countryside amid the devastation of the Russian Civil War, Marina returns to a decimated Petrograd, where her work caring for war orphans inspires her emergence as a poet. 100,000 first printing.
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| The Fallen Architect by Charles BelfoureLondon, 1900: Architect Douglas Layton has worked his way up the social ladder from his working-class background, with a successful career and an aristocratic wife to show for it. But when a balcony collapse at a theater he designed kills a dozen people, he loses his career, his family, and his freedom.
Five years later: Released from prison, Douglas takes on a new identity and paints theater sets for booze money, desperate to see his son again. Through his new connections in the theater world, he begins to suspect that the tragedy that derailed his career wasn't just an accident -- and that someone might still be out to get him. |
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| Button Man by Andrew GrossStarring: the three Rabishevsky brothers: Morris, who left school at age 12 to become the breadwinner after their parents' deaths; Sol, who works with Morris in the garment business; and the youngest, Harry, who wouldn't mind at all if the mafia figures he admires finally convinced his brothers to tie their family business with the family business.
Read it for: the richly detailed and authentic portrayal of life for three Jewish orphans in 1930s New York; the emotional turmoil of the fraying relationships between the brothers; cameos by important figures of the day, such as Dutch Schultz and Thomas Dewey. |
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| A Slant of Light by Jeffrey LentWhat it is: a moving and lyrical story of secrets and trauma set in the midst of the religious upheaval of the Second Great Awakening and the social upheaval that followed the end of the Civil War.
What happens: A community in rural New York is sent reeling when Union Army veteran Malcolm Hopeton commits a disturbing act of violence after he returns home to find that his wife left him for another man.
Reviewers say: "piece by subtle piece, the story deftly casts its spell" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Heretics by Leonardo Padura; translated by Anna KushnerWhat it's about: Seventy years ago, Elias Kaminsky's Polish Jewish grandparents arrived on a ship to Havana, hoping the family's heirloom Rembrandt painting would buy their way into Cuba. Only their son, Elias' father, made it off the ship, and now Elias wants to know how and why the presumed-lost painting has reappeared in a London auction house.
About the author: Considered one of Cuba's most important living writers, award-winning author Leonardo Padura is best known internationally for his Havana Quartet series starring detective Mario Conde, who also appears in Heretics. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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