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Historical Fiction March 2017
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Stolen beauty : a novel
by Laurie Lico Albanese
A tale based on the true story behind the creation and near destruction of Gustav Klimt's most remarkable paintings traces the experiences of one of the master artist's lovers in 1900 Vienna, whose experiences with anti-Semitism inspire the survival of her niece when the Nazis invade Austria decades later.
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| Days Without End: A Novel by Sebastian BarryA survivor of Ireland's Great Famine and a recent immigrant to the United States, 17-year-old Thomas McNulty joins the U.S. Army in 1851 with his best friend and fellow orphan, John Cole. Sent first to the Great Plains to butcher the Sioux, and later, to the battlefields of the Civil War, the young carry out their orders despite their horror of the carnage. Meanwhile, they become lovers and must find a way to build a life together in a society that doesn't recognize or understand romantic relationships between men. Originally published in the U.K., Days Without End recently won the Costa book of the year award. |
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In the shadow of Lakecrest
by Elizabeth Canning Blackwell
Desperate to keep her past rife with poverty and violence a secret, Kate Moore, in 1928, meets and marries the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, only to discover something is not quite right with her new husband as she is isolated at Lakecrest, the family estate, with his domineering mother and overly close sister.
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Dance on the volcano
by Marie Chauvet
"Dance on the Volcano tells the story of two sisters growing up during the Haitian Revolution in a culture that swings heavily between decadence and poverty, sensuality and depravity. One sister, because of her singing ability, is able to enter into the white colonial society otherwise generally off limits to people of color. Closely examining a society sagging under the white supremacy of the French colonist rulers, Dance on the Volcano is one of only novels to closely depict the seeds and fruition of the Haitian Revolution, tracking an elaborate hierarchy of skin color and class through the experiences of two young women. It is a story about hatred and fear, love and loss, and the complex tensions between colonizer and colonized, masterfully translatedby Kaiama L. Glover"
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An Almond for a Parrot
by Wray Delaney
A woman in prison describes her life story growing up on the backstreets of 18th-century London where she was trained to be a courtesan at her stepmother’s Fairy House before a magician discovers she has powers similar to his own..
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Their Finest
by Lissa Evans
Drafted into the Ministry of Information in 1940 to help "write women" into propaganda films, young copywriter Catrin Cole is challenged to fabricate an inspirational story of bravery and rescue with the help of three callow, jaded and unsuitable helpers. Movie tie-in.
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The typewriter's tale
by Michiel Heyns
A tale told from the perspective of Henry James' fictional typist finds her struggling to live up to the fame and challenges of the celebrated author before finding herself at the center of an intrigue that tests her character and loyalties. Discussion guide available online. By the award-winning author of Lost Ground.
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The evening road
by Laird Hunt
In the summer of 1920 in small-town Indiana, two extraordinary women—beautiful Ottie Lee Henshaw and Calla Destry, a young black woman—cross paths and they soon move through an America plagued by fear and hatred, determined to flee the secrets they have left behind. By the author of Neverhome.
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The Dressmaker's Dowry
by Meredith Jaeger
A modern-day writer in San Francisco stumbles across the story of a local, immigrant dressmaker in 1876 who disappeared under mysterious circumstances and who may be connected to her through an heirloom engagement ring in her husband’s family.
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| Pachinko by Min Jin LeeShortly after Japan annexes Korea in 1910, a fisherman and his wife -- having already lost three sons -- welcome a daughter, Sunja. At 16, Sunja becomes pregnant and, spurned by her married lover, reluctantly accepts a marriage proposal from the minister lodging at her family's boarding house. The newlyweds travel to Japan to begin their life together, setting the stage for a sweeping multi-generational family saga that spans decades and touches on pivotal events of the 20th century. Fans of family sagas may enjoy Alan Brennert's Honolulu, about a Korean-American family in Hawaii. Readers who feel an affinity for Sunja will find a similarly unconventional and resourceful protagonist in Eugenia Kim's The Calligrapher's Daughter. |
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| Girl in Disguise by Greer MacallisterBy 1856, Chicago resident Kate Warne is in dire straits. Broke, widowed, and unemployed, she convinces Allan Pinkerton to hire her as the first female investigator at the Pinkerton National Detective Agency by pointing out that women have access to places where men aren't welcome. Kate, who excels as an undercover operative, finds a new avenue for her talents when the Civil War begins and the nature of her work shifts from detection to espionage. Fast-paced and suspenseful, Girl in Disguise introduces a memorable heroine who may appeal to fans of Amy Stewart's Girl Waits with Gun. |
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The Lonely Hearts Hotel
by Heather O'Neill
Two orphaned soulmates—one a piano prodigy, the other a dancing savant—dream up a plan for the most extraordinary circus show the world has ever seen against a backdrop of the Great Depression. By the award-winning author of Lullabies for Little Criminals.
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The Horseman
by Tim Pears
Follows the lives of an English farmer and his family on Lord Prideaux’s estate as at the start of World War I in 1911 in the first book of a new trilogy by the author of In the Place of Fallen Leaves.
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The Chilbury Ladies' Choir : a novel
by Jennifer Ryan
Letters and journals reveal the struggles, affairs, deceptions and triumphs of five members of a village choir during World War II as they band together to survive the upheavals of war and village intrigue on the English home front. A first novel.
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The passenger
by F. R Tallis
When the German submarine, U-471, collects two prisoners from a vessel located off the Icelandic coast, ordered to transport them to the base at Brest, one of the prisoners, a British submarine commander, goes rogue, setting in motion a series of shocking, brutal events that seem to be linked to the supernatural.
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| No Man's Land: A Novel by Simon TolkienWorking-class lad Adam Raine grows up in the coal-mining community of Scarsdale, but escapes a life in the mines thanks to an act of bravery that gains him an aristocratic patron. Bright and ambitious, Adam receives a university scholarship, but World War I soon alters the trajectory of his life. Once an Oxford student who dreamed of marrying his childhood sweetheart, Adam is now an enlisted man fighting in the trenches. Inspired by the early life of author Simon Tolkien's grandfather (fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien), No Man's Land is a coming-of-age story that grounds its central war story in an exploration of social class in Edwardian England. |
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To Name Those Lost
by Rohan Wilson
Thomas Toosey returns to Launceston, a colonial outpost in 1874 Australia full of crooks, drunks and poor people struggling, in search of his 12-year-old son. By the author of The Roving Party.
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| Rasputin's Daughter by Robert AlexanderAuthor Robert Alexander follows up his acclaimed debut The Kitchen Boy with another spellbinding journey to revolutionary Russia, this time to tell the story of the notorious "Mad Monk" Rasputin. Grigori Rasputin, despite his powerful influence over the Tsar's court as a mystic and healer, is an enigma -- even to his 18-year-old daughter, Maria, who narrates the story. Is he a visionary or a charlatan? As Maria attempts to reconcile the public image of her father with her private experiences of the man, she finds herself at the center of a plot to destroy Rasputin, the royal family, and even herself. For another richly detailed, atmospheric novel that documents the Russian Revolution and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty from Maria's perspective, try Kathryn Harrison's Enchantments. |
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| The Yid by Paul GoldbergIn 1953, state security officials show up to arrest Solomon Levinson, formerly an actor with the now-defunct Moscow State Jewish Theater. Their "operation" goes awry when Levinson, an elderly but spry war veteran, decides he'd rather not be imprisoned in Lubyanka. After violently dispatching the men, Levinson learns that they represent a larger effort on the part of Stalin to exterminate the country's Jews, prompting him to assemble a ragtag team to assassinate the Soviet leader. Like a Yiddish-inflected, Soviet-era take on Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds, The Yid infuses meticulous research and multilingual wit into its action-movie plot. |
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| The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva StachniakWhen 14-year-old Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, the timid daughter of impoverished Prussian nobles, arrives in St. Petersburg in 1743 to wed the future Emperor Peter III, there's little indication that she'll one day become the formidable Catherine the Great. Sixteen-year-old servant Vavara, tasked by the Empress Elizabeth to spy on her heir's new fiancée, befriends Sophie -- rechristened "Catherine" -- and observes her transformation from a political pawn into the canny ruler who commands the Imperial court. This novel is the 1st book in a trilogy, which continues with Empress of the Night. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Prince George's County Memorial Library System 9601 Capital Lane Largo, Maryland 20774 301-699-3500www.pgcmls.info/ |
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