|
Historical Fiction April 2021
|
|
|
|
|
Glamour Girls
by Marty Wingate
During World War II, farmer's daughter Rosalie Wright becomes a pilot assisting the RAF, but as the war progresses, her battles against skeptical male pilots and a romantic rivalry threaten to bring her dreams crashing down.
|
|
|
Send for me
by Lauren Fox
A baker’s daughter and her husband flee to America amid increasingly violent anti-Semitism in pre-World War II Germany two generations before her granddaughter learns the astonishing story of their heritage and losses. By the author of Days of Awe.
|
|
|
My old home : a novel of exile
by Orville Schell
A former Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism dean and Emmy Award-winning PBS producer presents the story of a rare Chinese student at 1950 San Francisco’s Conservatory of Music who upon returning home is confronted by an erratic new government.
|
|
| A Thousand Ships by Natalie HaynesWhat it is: an atmospheric and witty retelling of the Trojan War, from the shifting perspectives of both familiar and unfamiliar female characters.
Starring: the goddess Calliope, who decides to make the most of her role as a Muse; Penelope, who starts losing patience after learning why it's taking so long for her husband Odysseus to return; Oenone, who was abandoned by her husband Paris for Helen of Sparta.
About the author: Classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes is a regular contributor to The Sunday Telegraph and The Independent. Her previous works include the novels The Furies and The Children of Jocasta, children's book The Great Escape, and the nonfiction book The Ancient Guide to Modern Life. |
|
| The Slaughterman's Daughter by Yaniv IczkovitsWhat it's about: In this stylistically complex novel, a Jewish woman in late 19th-century Russia uses the skills she learned from her father (a ritual animal slaughterer) for self-defense, setting off an unexpected and and dramatic chain of events.
Read it for: the satisfying mix of fable, observational humor, and cat-and-mouse journey through Jewish communities in tsarist-era Russia and Ukraine.
Reviewers say: "Ever entertaining, Iczkovits’s lively, transportive picaresque takes readers on a memorable ride" (Publishers Weekly). |
|
| The Evening and the Morning by Ken FollettWhat it is: a sweeping and descriptive prequel to The Pillars of the Earth set during England's tumultuous 10th century.
Starring: down-on-his-luck boat builder Edgar; spirited young Norman noblewoman Ragna; scholarly and reform-minded cleric Brother Aldred.
Why you might like it: This intricately plotted tale of a land torn between its Saxon and Viking identities shows how a tiny riverside hamlet began its transformation into the town that series fans know as Kingsbridge. |
|
| Fifty Words for Rain by Asha LemmieWhat it's about: Noriko Kamiza is the illegitimate child of an African American GI and a Japanese aristocrat born during World War II. Abandoned by her mother, she lives a confined, deprived existence with her status-conscious grandmother in Kyoto, Japan.
Read it for: the unanticipated strong bond Noriko forms with her half-brother Akira, the family's legitimate heir; the parallels drawn between social change and Noriko's burgeoning independence after she escapes to Swinging Sixties London.
Reviewers say: "A truly ambitious and remarkable debut" (Booklist). |
|
| Jacob's Ladder by Ludmila UlitskayaWhat it is: a sweeping epistolary novel that chronicles three generations of a Russian family, from just before the Revolution to the 1970s.
Read it for: the engaging narrative voice and creative juxtaposition of personal and political upheaval.
Reviewers say: "A sweeping, ambitious story reminiscent at times of Pasternak in its grasp of both history and tragedy" (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
|
The half-drowned king : a novel
by Linnea Hartsuyker
Betrayed by his usurping stepfather during his return trip to his ancestral lands, a young warrior resolves to exact revenge and claim the woman he loves at the side of a strong Norse fighter rumored to be a prophesied king.
|
|
|
The Boleyn King : a novel
by Laura Andersen
Struggling to prove himself as the French threaten battle and the Catholics plot at home, 17-year-old King Henry IX, known as William, relies on his best friend and Loyal counselor, Dominic, until they both fall in love with the same woman--a romantic obsession that threatens a new generation of Tudors.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books?
|
|
|
Mary Riley Styles Public Library 601 S. Oak St. [Temporary Location] Falls Church, Virginia 22046 703-248-5030 (TTY 711)www.fallschurchva.gov/library |
|
|
|