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Historical Fiction October 2016
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Blood crime
by Sebastià Alzamora
In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, a police inspector investigates the strange murders of a Marist monk and a young boy, both of whom are drained of their blood, but his quest for justice is complicated by the politics, dangers and espionage of daily life in a war zone.
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Karolina's twins
by Ronald H Balson
A tale inspired by true events follows the experiences of a Holocaust survivor who, while fighting a lawsuit from the son who would garner her estate, reflects on her early years in war-torn Poland and the secret of maternity they shared. By the best-selling author of Once We Were Brothers.
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Fates and traitors : a novel of John Wilkes Booth
by Jennifer Chiaverini
A reimagining of the life of Lincoln's assassin by the best-selling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker describes Booth's tumultuous childhood on a Maryland farm and rise to the ballrooms of D.C. at the sides of four women before he became obsessed with avenging the Confederacy.
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Cooking for Picasso : a novel
by Camille Aubray
A tale inspired by a little-known interlude follows the 1936 culinary affair between a reclusive Picasso at a crossroads in his life and a rebellious teen from the French Riviera, a relationship that shapes the life of the girl's granddaughter in New York more than half a century later. Reading-group guide available.
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The dollhouse : a novel
by Fiona Davis
Arriving at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952 where she is instantly rendered a misfit, a plain, self-conscious secretarial school student is befriended and introduced by a hotel maid to the city's jazz and drug counterculture and is involved in a deadly skirmish that reverberates half a century later in the life of an obsessed journalist.
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| The Wonder by Emma DonoghueFresh from the battlefields of the Crimea (where she was trained by Florence Nightingale), English nurse Lib Wright has seen it all. Or so she thinks, until she travels to the Irish village of Athlone, where 11-year-old Anna O’Donnell reportedly survives on nothing but "manna from heaven." Is she a saint or a fraud? Hired by a committee of villagers to watch over the girl, Lib has two weeks to determine the truth of the matter -- a task complicated by Anna's uncooperative family and the steady stream of pilgrims who travel to the village to witness the "wonder." Faith and family secrets add a layer of psychological suspense to this haunting novel, which is inspired by true stories of "Fasting Girls" in Europe from the 15th to the 19th century. |
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The orphan mother : a novel
by Robert Hicks
Following the Civil War, Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock - the "Widow of the South" - has quietly built a new life for herself as a midwife to the women of Franklin, Tennessee; but when her ambitious, politically-minded grown son, Theopolis, is murdered, Mariah, no stranger to loss, finds her world once more breaking apart. .
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The nix
by Nathan Hill
Astonished to see the mother who abandoned him in childhood throwing rocks at a presidential candidate, a bored college professor struggles to reconcile the radical media depictions of his mother with his small-town memories and decides to draw her out by penning a tell-all biography.
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| The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah JefferiesWhen 19-year-old Gwendolyn weds widower Laurence Hooper, she forsakes her native Gloucestershire for her new husband's tea plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). But marital bliss eludes the couple due to lingering questions about the mysterious death of Laurence's first wife, Caroline, and their young child. Meanwhile, rising tensions between Sinhalese and Tamil laborers, coupled with growing resistance on the part of the Ceylonese people to British colonial rule, place the Hoopers in a precarious position. With nods to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, this lush and atmospheric novel depicts a failing marriage amid the vivid backdrop of 1920s Sri Lanka. |
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| Mischling: A Novel by Affinity KonarBecause they are Jewish twins living in Poland in 1944, 12-year-old sisters Stasha and Pearl Zagorski are sent to the Auschwitz Zoo, where "Uncle Doctor" Joseph Mengele uses the girls as subjects in his monstrous medical experiments. At first, their strong bond helps them endure; then Pearl disappears. Devastated, Stasha joins forces with Feliks, another twin with a missing sibling, to discover Pearl's whereabouts before the Nazis -- aware of the Red Army's impending arrival -- can destroy all the evidence and bury the truth forever. In spare yet lyrical language, this heartwrenching novel depicts how love sustains even amid horror and atrocity. |
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| I Will Send Rain: A Novel by Rae MeadowsAs dust storms bear down on Mulehead, Oklahoma, destroying the livelihood of the region's farmers, the Bell family struggles to survive. Patriarch Samuel turns to religious fanaticism, while wife Annie reflects on how her life might have been different had she stayed in her Kansas hometown instead of following Samuel to Oklahoma. The Bell children, Birdie and Fred, have their own problems, ranging from the pains of first love to living with chronic illness. This novel's Depression-era setting is evoked through vivid imagery and lyrical prose, while its emotional weight comes from its moving depiction of a family in crisis. |
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The girl in the castle : a novel
by Santa Montefiore
A first installment in a planned trilogy follows the experiences of Kitty, who enjoys a life of privilege on Ireland's wild countryside at the side of an increasingly resentful best friend and the vet's son she loves, until the Irish revolt threatens her beloved home.
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The last days of night : a novel
by Graham Moore
When electric light innovator Thomas Edison sues his only remaining rival for patent infringement, George Westinghouse hires untested Columbia Law School graduate Paul Ravath for a case fraught with lies, betrayals and deception. By the best-selling author of The Sherlockian.
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Mata Hari's last dance : a novel
by Michelle Moran
A tale inspired by exotic dancer, courtesan and suspected spy Mata Hari finds her sitting in a 1917 Paris jail cell, reflecting on the childhood abandonment, abusive marriage and rise in the dancing world that led to her arrest for treason. By the best-selling author of Rebel Queen.
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The velvet hours
by Alyson Richman
In the face of the German Occupation, a young Parisian woman locks up her late grandmother¡s apartment, full of valuables and treasure, and wonders if she'll ever return. By the internationally best-selling author of The Lost Wife.
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| A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles"Should you ever set foot outside the Metropol again, you will be shot." With these words, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is placed under house arrest in Moscow's grand Hotel Metropol by the Bolsheviks in 1922. Eschewing despair in favor of "the business of practicalities," Rostov explores his opulent prison and gets to know his fellow residents, particularly a little girl named Nina. Over time, Rostov becomes a fixture of the hotel, which overlooks Revolution Square and serves as a literal window to 20th-century Russian history. At once witty and poignant, this novel by the author of Rules of Civility offers a likable lead character and a strong sense of place. |
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| The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara HamblyShe survived the Civil War and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, as well as her husband's assassination and the deaths of three of her four children. Now, her sole surviving son is attempting to have her declared legally insane -- a ruling that would commit her to an institution for the rest of her days. One could forgive Mary Todd Lincoln for her despair. But how did it come to this? The Emancipator's Wife follows its flawed-but-sympathetic protagonist from her childhood in Kentucky as the daughter of a prominent Lexington family through her marriage to up-and-coming Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, and beyond. |
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| Watergate: A Novel by Thomas MallonA break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, located in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate Complex, ignites a political scandal that brings down the Nixon administration and causes a constitutional crisis. This witty, character-driven novel depicts multiple viewpoints including those of the President and First Lady; Nixon's loyal secretary Rose Mary Woods; presidential aide and "bagman" Fred LaRue; ex-CIA operative-turned-novelist E. Howard Hunt; nonagenarian socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and more. Fans of Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic should enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at insider politics. |
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Wolf hall
by Hilary Mantel
Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome and many of his people, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price.
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| Bring Up The Bodies: A Novel by Hilary MantelThis sequel to Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall continues the story of ambitious courtier Thomas Cromwell's career. Having achieved the pinnacle of success as King Henry VIII's chief minister, Cromwell -- who used cunning and political gamesmanship to secure the annulment that dissolved the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and severed the bonds between the Anglican Church and Rome -- must once again appease his sovereign. This time, his task is to replace Anne Boleyn, who has failed to produce a male heir to the throne, with Henry's latest obsession, Jane Seymour. However, dispensing with yet another queen is a tricky business, and one false step could cost Cromwell everything. |
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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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