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Historical Fiction November 2020
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The Cold Millions
by Jess Walter
An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early twentieth-century America that eerily echoes our own time. Enduring the corruption of their union employment, two young day laborers are respectively drawn to a feminist activist and a vaudeville singer whose experiences reflect an unjust world on the brink of upheaval.
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| The Abstainer by Ian McGuireWhat it is: the compelling and intricately plotted story of an Irish American Civil War veteran’s 1867 arrival in Manchester, England, where he gets involved with an underground Irish independence organization that puts him on the radar of a troubled local constable determined to take the movement down.
Reviewers say: "This well-told, suspenseful tale will appeal to fans of Deadwood and Cormac McCarthy" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Cuyahoga
by Pete Beatty
A proto-superhero’s efforts to secure a marriage-worthy fortune in 1837 Ohio place him at the center of a madcap city rivalry involving elderly terrorists, steamboat races, wild pigs and ruined weddings.
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| Black Bottom Saints by Alice RandallWhat it's about: the heyday of Black arts and culture in 1950s Detroit, as narrated by real-life local legend Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, who rubbed elbows with big names like Dinah Washington, Sammy Davis Jr., and artists signed with the upstart record label that would later be called Motown.
About the author: Vanderbilt professor Alice Randall is a songwriter, novelist, and essayist known for her novel The Wind Done Gone, a retelling of Gone with the Wind from a slave’s perspective. |
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Daughter of Black Lake
by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Growing up on an iron-age settlement far from the reach of Roman conquerors, a young woman who envisions a life of peace draws on the power of an extraordinary gift to save her community from famine and invaders.
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| The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor TobarInspired by: the true story of Joe Sanderson, an Illinois teenager who left a comfortable life to hitchhike around the world and witnessed key 20th-century moments such as the Tet Offensive, Nigeria’s Biafra crisis, and most important for his own fate, the 1980s civil war in El Salvador.
Don't miss: the sardonic footnotes in which “Joe” argues with author Héctor Tobar’s version of his life story. |
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The Wrong Kind of Woman
by Sarah McCraw Crow
A late-1970s widow becomes increasingly dependent on the feminist activists her professor husband and she once disdained, before a frat party and a Vietnam War protest gone wrong threaten her daughter’s prospects.
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| The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart TurtonWhat it is: a dramatic and intricately plotted historical mystery set during the 17th century, on a long sea voyage from the Dutch East Indies back to Amsterdam.
All aboard! Just before the ship sets sail, a man ravaged by leprosy tries to warn the passengers and crew that the voyage is doomed -- moments before he spontaneously combusts.
Passengers include: Imprisoned British spy Samuel Phipps; colonial Governor General Jan Haan, on his way to a cushy promotion; and if sailor superstitions are to be believed, a demon named Old Tom on whom they blame a series of violent deaths. |
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V2 : A Novel of World War II
by Robert Harris
A World War II German rocket engineer under orders to launch V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland and an actress-turned-English Intelligence officer who would neutralize the bombings land on opposite sides in a desperate hunt for a saboteur.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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