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Historical Fiction November 2018
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War of the Wolf
by Bernard Cornwell
Traces the warrior Uhtred of Bebbanburg's struggles with duty, devotion and treachery as he returns to the frontlines to battle for the destiny of England. By the New York Times best-selling author of The Flame Bearer 100,000 first printing. TV tie-in
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The ghost tree
by Barbara Erskine
Before you follow the path into your family's history, beware of the secrets you may find. Ruth has returned to Edinburgh after many years of exile. Left rootless by the death of her estranged father, she is faced with the daunting task of sorting through his possessions. Amidst the dust of her old life, Ruth discovers a hidden diary from the eighteenth century, written by her ancestor, Thomas Erskine. As she sifts through the ancient pages of the past, Ruth is pulled into a story that she can't escape. As the youngest son of a noble family Thomas' life started in genteel poverty, but his extraordinary experiences propel him from the high seas to Lord Chancellor. Yet, on his journey through life, he makes a powerful enemy who hounds him to the death... and beyond. Ruth has opened a door to the past that she can't close.
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Stagecoach to Purgatory
by Peter Brandvold
Presents two novels in one volume starring Lou Prophet—“Last Stage to Hell,” in which Lou seeks bloody revenge, and “Devil by the Tail,” in which Lou teams up with “The Vengeance Queen” to send a fork-tongued demon back to hell. Original.
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Unsheltered
by Barbara Kingsolver
The award-winning author of The Poisonwood Bible traces the experiences of a woman whose efforts to protect her family from sudden unemployment are shaped by the story of an ostracized 19th-century science teacher. 500,000 first printing. Tour
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| Days Without End by Sebastian BarryStarring: 17-year-old immigrant Thomas McNulty, a survivor of Ireland's Great Famine, and John Cole, his friend and lover.
What happens: The couple's enlistment in the U.S. Army takes them from the Great Plains to the battlefields of the Civil War. Meanwhile, they try to build a life together in a society that doesn't understand or accept romantic relationships between men.
Book buzz: Originally published in the U.K., Days Without End won the 2016 Costa Book of the Year award. |
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The right-hand shore
by Christopher Tilghman
Visiting a dying Miss Mary Bayly in 1922 Chesapeake Bay to secure his inheritance of the Retreat family estate, Edward Mason is told legacy-defining stories about his family and land, from an ancestor's brutal 1857 sale of soon-to-be-emancipated slaves to a doomed effort to cultivate a peach orchard. By the author of Mason's Retreat. 75,000 first printing.
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| The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane GilmanWhat it is: an engaging rags-to-riches story that takes readers from the tenements of the Lower East Side to the gilded environs of Manhattan's wealthiest (with stops along the way at Studio 54 and the White House).
Starring: Lillian Dunkle (née Malka Treynovsky), the Russian Jewish immigrant child who, adopted by the Italian ice-peddling Dinello family, grows up to build an ice cream empire.
For fans of: New Yorkers with outsize personalities who narrate their eventful lives, such as the protagonists of Jami Attenberg's Saint Mazie or Kathleen Rooney's Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. |
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| Pachinko by Min Jin LeeWhat it is: a sweeping family saga spanning four generations and eight decades, which opens with Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910.
What happens: Pregnant 16-year-old Sunja, spurned by her married lover, reluctantly accepts a marriage proposal from the minister lodging at her family's boarding house. The newlyweds travel to Japan to begin their life together.
For fans of: Alan Brennert's Honolulu, about a Korean American family in Hawaii; Eugenia Kim's The Calligrapher's Daughter, whose protagonist, like Sunja, proves resourceful during troubled times. |
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| The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermottWhat it is: award-winning author Alice McDermott's intimate depiction of an Irish American enclave in early 20th-century Brooklyn.
It starts when: an Irish immigrant's suicide results in his pregnant widow's job as laundress for the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor.
You might also like: Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves or Kathleen Donohoe's Ashes of Fiery Weather, both multigenerational sagas about Irish American families in New York City. |
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If today be sweet
by Thrity N. Umrigar
A middle-aged widow struggles to decide whether she will live in her native India or immigrate to America, where her son and his wife live in suburban Ohio and where the widow struggles with her cultural identity and need to bring happiness into the family. By the author of The Space Between Us. 40,000 first printing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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