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Historical Fiction April 2018
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| Bachelor Girl by Kim van AlkemadeWhat happens: In 1939, Colonel Jacob Ruppert, the millionaire owner of the New York Yankees, dies and leaves a substantial bequest to an obscure actress. But why?
Read it for: long-buried secrets revealed through alternating first-person accounts; a vivid evocation of 1920s and '30s New York City.
Author alert: Kim van Alkemade, author of the bestselling Orphan Number 8, returns with another moving and richly detailed novel that shifts between time periods and perspectives. |
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Varina
by Charles Frazier
What it's about: Forced by limited prospects to marry much-older widower Jefferson Davis, teenage Varina Howell finds her expectations as the wife of a Mississippi landowner inverted by his appointment as the leader of the Confederacy.
Why you might like it: Varina portrays one woman's tragic life and epic in its scope and power. Author alert: Charles Frazier returns to the time and place of Cold Mountain, vividly bringing to life the chaos and devastation of the Civil War.
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| The Cloister-[eBook] by James CarrollWhat it's about: In 12th-century France, philosopher Peter Abelard embarks on a forbidden (and ultimately doomed) affair with his brilliant pupil, Héloïse. Centuries later, a priest and a Holocaust survivor bond over shared intellectual interests.
Read it for: a thought-provoking meditation on love, faith, and forgiveness.
You might also like: Iain Pears' The Dream of Scipio, another novel of love and philosophy that links characters across time periods. |
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All the beautiful girls
by Elizabeth J Church
What it's about: A spirited young woman fights the demons of her past by becoming a dancer in 1960s Las Vegas, where her sensual beauty leads to her work in glamorous productions and a consuming affair with a fiery photographer.
Reviewers say: "A gorgeously written novel with the bite of a gin martini, All the Beautiful Girls goes beyond the splashy, gaudy dazzle of Las Vegas in the sixties to reveal the beating heart beneath the glamorous façade of a showgirl with big ambitions." --Sara Gruen
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| I Was Anastasia by Ariel LawhonStarring: Two women -- Anna Anderson and Anastasia Romanov -- who may or may not be the same person.
Want a taste? "Am I truly Anastasia Romanov? A beloved daughter. A revered icon. A Russian grand duchess. Or am I an impostor? A fraud. A liar. The thief of another woman's legacy."
You might also like: John Boyne's The House of Special Purpose, which also imagines Anastasia's fate. |
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| The Pagan Lord by Bernard CornwellStarring: Uhtred of Bebbanburg, whose efforts to reclaim his ancestral Northumbrian estate places him in the path of invading Norsemen.
Why you might like it: This fast-paced, action-packed novel also offers a richly detailed depiction of a 10th-century Britain riven by conflict between Saxons and Danes, pagans and Christians.
Media buzz: Bernard Cornwell's popular Saxon Stories books are the basis of the television series The Last Kingdom. |
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Under a Pole Star
by Stef Penney
What it's about: Whaler's daughter Flora Mackie is 12 years old in 1883 when she first crosses the Arctic Circle, igniting a lifelong passion for polar exploration.
Why you might like it: Character-driven by the author of The Tenderness of Wolves, may appeal to fans of the independent and unconventional heroines of Eowyn Ivey's To the Bright Edge of the World and Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things.
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| Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow by David GemmellWhat it's about: As Agamemnon of Mykene leads the Greeks in a war against the city of Troy, archer Helikaon (a.k.a. Aeneas) prepares to defend his beloved city and the woman he loves.
Is it for you? Loosely based on Homer's Iliad, this opening volume of David Gemmell's Troy trilogy takes considerable liberties with the original story.
For fans of: the gritty historical sagas of Steven Pressfield and Ben Kane, which focus on the military conflicts of classical antiquity. |
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Chasing the North Star
by Robert Morgan
What it is: Fleeing the South Carolina plantation where he has spent his entire life, 18-year-old slave Jonah Williams uses the stars to escape to the North and is pursued by both slave hunters and a free-spirited fellow slave.
Why you might like it: Bristling with breathtaking adventure, Chasing the North Star is deftly grounded in historical fact while celebration of the power of the human spirit.
About the author: Acclaimed author of award-winning "Gap Creek".
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To The Bright Edge of the World
by Eowyn Ivey
What it is: Leaving his wife, Sophie, behind in the Vancouver barracks, U.S. Army Colonel Allen Forrester embarks on an expedition to map the interior of the newly acquired Alaska Territory and discovered the blurred lines between human and wild animal, the living and the dead.
For fans of: With its sympathetic characters and lyrical depictions of the 19th-century American frontier, this historical epistolary novel may appeal to fans of Diane Smith's Letters from Yellowstone and Pictures from an Expedition.
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