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Historical Fiction August 2018
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| Rust & Stardust by T. GreenwoodWhat it is: a suspenseful novel based on the shocking 1948 kidnapping case that inspired Vladimir Nabokov's controversial Lolita.
Who it's for: fans of literary crime fiction based on real events, such as Emma Cline's The Girls or Emma Flint's Little Deaths.
You might also like: Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita, a nonfiction account of the abduction of Sally Horner. |
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Button man
by Andrew Gross
A disadvantaged but once happy immigrant family is brought together and torn apart by the birth of organized crime in 1930s New York City. By the New York Times best-selling author of The Dark Tide
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Not our kind : a novel
by Kitty Zeldis
Forced to hide her Jewish identity from her employer's post-World War II Park Avenue community, a Vassar-educated tutor forges unexpected bonds before a crossed line leads to life-changing decisions. 40,000 first printing.
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The tattooist of Auschwitz
by Heather Morris
An international best-seller based on the true story of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor traces the experiences of a Jewish Slovakian who uses his position as a concentration-camp tattooist to secure food for his fellow prisoners. Hardcover Library Edition. 20,000 first printing.
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| If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana KimIntroducing: Haemi and Kyunghwan, teenage sweethearts living in a refugee village in 1951 Busan, South Korea.
What happens: Haemi reluctantly agrees to marry Kyunghwan's cousin, Jisoo, a decision that will affect their families for generations.
You might also like: Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which also follows a couple whose childhood friendship blossoms into love just before war separates them. |
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| Manhattan Beach by Jennifer EganWhat it is: a lyrical, character-driven novel that follows Anna Kerrigan from adolescence, when her mob-connected father disappears, to adulthood, when she becomes the first female diver at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.
Read it for: a complex protagonist, a vivid recreation of New York City during the Great Depression and World War II, and meticulously researched details of a diver's life during this period. |
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| Lilac Girls by Martha Hall KellyWhat it's about: the Ravensbrück concentration camp, as seen from the perspectives of three women from very different backgrounds.
Featuring: American socialite and charity worker Caroline, Polish resistance fighter Kasia, and German physician Herta, who supports the Nazi regime.
Want a taste? "If I'd known I was about to meet the man who'd shatter me like bone china on terra-cotta, I would have slept in." |
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| Mischling: A Novel by Affinity KonarWhat happens: In 1944, 12-year-old twins Stasha and Pearl Zagorski are sent to the Auschwitz Zoo, where "Uncle Doctor" Joseph Mengele uses the girls as subjects in his monstrous medical experiments.
Why you should read it: In spare yet lyrical language, this heartwrenching novel depicts a powerful bond between sisters.
Try this next: Steve Sem-Sandberg's The Chosen Ones, whose child protagonist is confined to an institution dedicated to eugenics research in 1930s Vienna. |
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| The Fire by Night by Teresa MessineoWhat it's about: Best friends in the Army Nurse Corps experience World War II from different vantage points: Giuseppina "Jo" McMahon in a bombed-out field hospital in France, Kay Elliot in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines.
Is it for you? Unfolding amid the chaos of war, this moving and well-researched debut contains harrowing descriptions of the hardships experienced by the protagonists and their patients. |
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| China Dolls: A Novel by Lisa SeeWhat it's about: three Asian American nightclub performers navigating the "Chop Suey Circuit" of San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1930s.
Starring: Grace Lee, who flees her Midwestern hometown for a life on the stage; Helen Fong, who rebels against her traditional Chinese family; and Ruby Tom, who conceals her Japanese heritage as hostilities between the U.S. and Japan escalate.
Further reading: Graham Russell Hodges' Anna May Wong, a biography of Hollywood's first Chinese American actress, whose career ambitions were stymied by racial prejudice. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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