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Historical Fiction December 2019
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| Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi; translated by Marilyn BoothWhat it is: a multi-generational family saga set in 20th-century Oman, which focuses on three sisters and unfolds against a backdrop of dramatic societal change.
Why you might like it: At the center of this novel, told in linked vignettes, is a group of complex female characters navigating a deeply patriarchal society.
Book buzz: Celestial Bodies is the first novel written in Arabic to win the Man Booker International Prize; its author, Jokha Alharthi, is the first female Omani writer to be translated into English. |
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The Yankee widow
by Linda Lael Miller
Protecting her child and Gettysburg farm at the height of the Civil War, a widow faces difficult choices when she offers shelter to a dedicated Union soldier, a passionate Southern rebel and a pregnant fugitive slave.
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| The Innocents by Michael CrummeyIntroducing: Everard and Ada Best, adolescent siblings whose only contact with the outside world is a ship that periodically delivers supplies to the desolate Newfoundland outport where they eke out a hardscrabble existence following their parents' deaths.
Why you might like it: Magical realist touches and a vividly rendered setting lend a timeless quality to this bleak and often disturbing tale by Canadian author Michael Crummey (River Thieves), which was inspired by an incident recorded in an 18th-century clergyman's diaries. |
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| On Swift Horses by Shannon PufahlWhat it's about: the complicated emotional ties that bind two brothers, Korean war veterans Lee and Julius, and Muriel, a gambler who marries Lee but feels drawn to Julius, who's gay.
Why you might like it: Shifting between the racetracks of 1950s San Diego and the casinos of Las Vegas, this character-driven novel offers an intimate exploration of hidden subcultures in lush, lyrical prose.
Reviewers say: "a queer Western for an utterly contemporary audience" (Booklist). |
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The Disappearance by Katherine Webb April, 1942. Amid the chaos of a night of bombing in Bath, six-year-old Davy Noyle goes missing. Frances Parry, looking after him at the time, is tortured by guilt and refuses to believe that he's dead. As quiet falls and the dust begins to settle on the damaged city, a body is found. But it's the body of a little girl, Frances's best friend Wyn, who has been missing for over twenty years. As Frances continues her search for Davy, this new discovery leads her back to her childhood, and forces her to revisit a crime that has cast a shadow over her life. This time, she vows to uncover the truth, however dark it might be.
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| A Country Road, A Tree by Jo BakerStarring: Irish playwright Samuel Beckett (although he remains nameless throughout this spare, evocative novel).
What happens: Soon after his 1939 arrival in Paris, World War II begins; for the next six years, he and his lover, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, hide from the Germans while aiding the French Resistance.
Is it for you? Written in second person and in present tense, A Country Road, A Tree marks a stylistic departure from the author's previous novel, Longbourn. |
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| Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie BenjaminIntroducing: Claude Auzello, director of the Hotel Ritz, and his wife, American expatriate Blanche, who risk everything to aid the Resistance after the Nazis take over the iconic Paris hotel in 1940.
Read it for: a dual narrative that slowly reveals the secrets and lies that form the foundation of the couple's tempestuous marriage, plus a detailed below-stairs look at life at the Ritz.
For fans of: WWII-set fiction by Martha Hall Kelly, Pam Jenoff, or Kate Quinn. |
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| Resistance Women by Jennifer ChiaveriniFeaturing: Mildred Fish Harnack, Greta Kuckoff, Sara Weitz, and Martha Dodd, four brave women who, along with their friends and partners, form a Berlin resistance cell known as the Rote Kapelle ("Red Orchestra").
Reviewers say: "A riveting, complex tale of the courage of ordinary people" (Kirkus Reviews).
About the author: When she's not busy with her popular Elm Creek Quilts series, Jennifer Chiaverini writes atmospheric and well-researched historical novels such as The Enchantress of Numbers. |
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| Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark SullivanItaly, 1943: 17-year-old Pino Lella is already risking his life by helping Jewish refugees cross the border into Switzerland; the stakes get even higher after he's assigned to chauffeur a high-ranking officer in the Third Reich and takes advantage of his position to spy on the Germans.
Inspired by: the wartime exploits of a real-life resistance fighter of the same name, whom the author met and befriended.
Media buzz: a planned big screen adaptation is currently in the works, so keep an eye out. |
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"February, 1943. Englishman and ex-teacher Harry Mitchell is recruited by the SOE for a dangerous mission in Paris: find and bring home one of their missing wireless operators. Alfred Korte has been quiet for some time, except for probing messages about the arrival of their next agent. With Paris a breeding ground of informers, the SOE are certain there is a traitor amongst their own. It's up to Mitchell to find Korte and then take out the rat. But he has his own motive for taking the mission. The wife and daughter he had to leave behind in Paris were involved with the French Resistance and a midnight tip-off left his daughter in the hands of the Gestapo. As he searches for his daughter and navigates the betrayals of war, Mitchell realises courage will only take him so far. He is stepping into the lion's den, where SS reprisals are swift and brutal and the less one knows the better"
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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