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Historical Fiction Ebooks April 2021
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| Dangerous Women by Hope AdamsWhat it is: a moving, well-researched debut novel inspired by the true story of the 1841 voyage of the ship Rajah as it transported a group of female convicts to Tasmania.
What goes wrong: As an intricate but tenuous web of connections develops between the women onboard, the violent death of a passenger threatens to unearth a multitude of secrets beyond the identity of the murderer.
For fans of: locked-room murder mysteries and ensemble casts.
[also available as a physical book] |
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| 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.
[also available as a physical book] |
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| 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).
[also available as a physical book] |
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| Those Who Are Saved by Alexis LandauWhat it is: a compelling and thought-provoking story of survival and family separation set during the Nazi occupation of France.
Vichy France, 1940: Russian Jewish émigrés Vera and Max Volosenkova entrust their young daughter Lucie to governess Agnes after being ordered to report to an "internment" camp.
California, 1945: Although the couple were unexpectedly given a chance to escape Nazi custody, there was no way to return for their daughter along the way. The war now over, Vera is desperate to get back to France to search for Lucie in the postwar sea of refugees.
[also available as a physical book] |
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The Salt Fields
by Stacy D. Flood
What it's about: On the day that Minister Peters boards a train from South Carolina heading north, he has nothing left but the ghosts of his past. As part of the post-war exodus from the South, he is one of many seeking a new life, with unforeseen consequences.
Why to read it: A beautiful and powerful novella told in lyrical prose, a poignant exploration of desire, yearning, and hope.
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| 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.
[also available as a physical book] |
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| 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).
[also available as a physical book] |
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| House of Gold by Natasha SolomonsThe premise: In 1911, strong-willed Austrian heiress Greta Goldbaum moved to England to marry a man she didn't know for the sake of her family's business interests. Though they get off to a rough start, Greta and her new husband build a life together, and soon they fall in love for real.
The problem: At the outbreak of World War I, Greta finds herself torn between her family of origin and the family she has created, both of which are threatened by the increasing antisemitism that's spreading across Europe.
For fans of: Barbara Taylor Bradford's Cavendon Hall, another family saga steeped in doomed Belle Époque glamour in the run-up to World War I.
[also available as a physical book] |
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The winds of war
by Herman Wouk
What it's about: As World War II escalates in Europe, the Henry clan, a family of American naval heroes, finds itself drawn into the center of the conflict and must send its patriarch and several sons into the fray.
Why to read it: A classic novel by a master storyteller, the sweeping, world-spanning saga of one family caught up in the tide of war.
[also available as a physical book]
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Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
What it's about: Two half-sisters, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in 18th-century Ghana and experience profoundly different lives and legacies throughout subsequent generations marked by wealth, slavery, war, coal mining, the Great Migration and the realities of 20th-century Harlem.
Why to read it: An unforgettable, page-turning look at the histories of Ghana and America, as the author traces a single bloodline across seven generations.
[also available as a physical book]
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