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Historical Fiction February 2020
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| The Secret Guests by Benjamin BlackWho: the young English princesses Margaret and Elizabeth.
Where: Clonmillis Hall, an estate in the Irish countryside where the princesses have been sent to protect them from the Blitz, complete with assumed names and an MI5 agent posing as their governess.
Why you might like it: While in real life the royal family stayed in England during the entirety of the war, this reimagined story puts the princesses in the neutral Republic of Ireland, where their safety from the war is replaced with the fear of what Irish nationalists might do if their true identities are revealed. |
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| The Girls With No Names by Serena BurdickWhat it is: an intricately plotted story of sisterly love, teenage rebellion, and the limited options available to young women in Gilded Age America, inspired by Ireland's notorious Magdalene Laundries.
Read it for: The moving bond between courageous sisters Effie and Luella, who will do anything they can to find each other again after a family secret drives them apart.
Reviewers say: "exquisitely wrought and meticulously researched" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Glittering Hour by Iona GreyWhere it's set: The stately English manor house Blackwood Park, where nine-year-old Alice Carew is sent to stay with her grandparents during her parents' extended stay in Burma in 1936.
What happens: Alice begins a "treasure hunt", eventually discovering details about her mother's wild, romantic past as one of London's "Bright Young People," the nature of her parents' marriage, and an earth-shattering secret about herself.
Read it for: the intensifying narrative buildup and the lush, glamourous world of 1920s London, which is explored in flashbacks. |
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| The Poppy Wife by Caroline ScottWhat it's about: In 1921, a cryptic message leads World War I widow Edie to team up with her late husband Francis' brother Harry, travelling to postwar France to discover the truth about what happened to Francis in the trenches.
Why you might like it: the well-researched and richly detailed depiction of a devastated France slowly recovering from the war; the well-developed characters, whose stories of love and loss are poignant and moving. |
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| The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi CoatesWhat it is: the haunting, lyrical story of Hiram Walker, who uses the remarkable abilities inherited from his mother (the titular water dancer) to assist with the Underground Railroad after escaping the plantation owned by his white father.
Author alert: MacArthur fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates has written for numerous publications including The Atlantic, where he also served as an editor. The Water Dancer is his first novel, but his other books include Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power.
Reviewers say: "bold, dazzling, and not to be missed" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The World That We Knew by Alice HoffmanWhat it's about: The journeys (both literal and figurative) of Jewish girls Ettie, Lea, and Ava who flee 1940s Berlin for occupied France, where their paths diverge and reconnect in dramatic, heartwrenching ways.
Odd girl out: Posing as Lea's cousin, Ava is actually a golem Ettie built back in Berlin to protect Lea from harm -- a duty she performs with equal parts warmth and ruthlessness.
What sets it apart: author Alice Hoffman's ability to thread moments of compelling sweetness into the lives of her characters as they try to survive the horrors of Nazism. |
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| She Would Be King by WayƩtu MooreWhat it is: a haunting and thought-provoking story of the founding of Liberia, driven by a group of complex, flawed characters from different parts of the African diaspora, all of whom have unusual abilities that set them on the path toward each other.
Starring: Gbessa, a young girl who is shunned from her village as a witch for her powers of resurrection; June Dey, an American former slave who has superhuman strength; and Jamaican-born Norman Aragon, a mixed-race man who inherited his mother's power of invisibility. |
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| The Old Drift by Namwali SerpellWhat it is: a sweeping family saga that interweaves the history of colonial Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) with the complex web of connections between generations of three different families -- one English, one Italian, and one African.
For fans of: Isabel Allende's classic debut novel The House of the Spirits, which similarly blends post-colonial history with magical realism as it follows the generations of interconnected families.
Reviewers say: The Old Drift is a novel with a "generous spirit, sensory richness, and visionary heft" that set it apart from other family epics (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie YaniqueWhat it's about: The 20th-century history of the Virgin Islands as experienced by the family of the deeply flawed Captain Owen Bradshaw, whose actions cause trouble for decades after his death.
The Bradshaw brood: eldest daughter Eeona, a beauty who refuses to marry because of a dark family secret; youngest daughter Annette, who desperately craves the intimacy her sister avoids; illegitimate son Jacob, who is drawn to the family despite knowing nothing about his paternity.
Is it for you? Although the novel's lush, lyrical prose and beautiful setting are appealing, there are disturbing family dynamics that won't suit all readers. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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