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Historical Fiction November 2018
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The Burning Stone
by Jack Whyte
A tale of murder and intrigue set in fourth-century Roman Britain.
Assassins slaughtered the family of Quintus Varrus, a young nobleman, now hiding in the town of Colchester. After a second attempt on his life, Quintus joins forces with a member of a secret brotherhood to oppose powerful forces looking to destroy the Empire.
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| House of Gold by Natasha SolomonsInspired by: the Rothschilds, the German Jewish family that established an international banking business in Europe.
Introducing: Rebellious Greta Goldbaum, who grudgingly agrees to an arranged marriage with her distant cousin Albert, whom she's never met. Their union, meant to strengthen the ties between the Austrian and English branches of the family, is put to the test by World War I.
Want a taste? "If Vienna was the aged aunt in her crinoline chaperoning the empire, then Paris was the cousin slipping a glass of champagne into her hand." |
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| The Lost Queen by Signe PikeIntroducing: Chieftain's daughter Languoreth, who longs to become a Wisdom Keeper like her twin brother, Lailoken, but who must instead marry a highborn man and produce heirs.
Based on: Myrddin Wyllt, the probable inspiration for the Merlin of Arthurian legend; the history of the 6th-century Kingdom of Strathclyde (in present-day Scotland).
For fans of: Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. |
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| A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne FowlerWhat happens: Alva Smith, penniless but pedigreed, sets her sights on William K. Vanderbilt, heir to a railroad fortune. She soon learns that while money may provide security, it can't buy happiness.
Read it for: a richly detailed depiction of high society life during America's Gilded Age.
You might also like: Karen Harper's American Duchess, about William and Alva's daughter Consuelo. |
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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 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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| 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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| 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 Practice House by Laura McNealWhat it's about: After a fateful encounter with two Mormon missionaries, 19-year-old Aldine McKenna leaves Scotland and accepts a position as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in drought-stricken Kansas.
Is it for you? An illicit relationship adds drama to a bittersweet and quietly atmospheric tale of a struggling farming community during the Great Depression.
About the author: The Practice House marks the adult debut of author Laura McNeal, best known for her YA fiction. |
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You were there before my eyes
by Maria Riva
A woman from a small, Italian village emigrates to America with her husband during the early part of the 20th century and must navigate a new language and country while dealing with the economic and social upheaval of an impending war.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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