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Historical Fiction July 2019
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| The Stationery Shop by Marjan KamaliTehran, 1953: aspiring poet Roya Kayhani and political activist Bahman Aslan meet at a stationery shop and fall in love. But before they can wed, Bahman disappears during a CIA-instigated coup d'état.
Boston, 2013: Having immigrated to America and raised a family, Roya is unexpectedly reunited with Bahman, who reveals what happened.
Want a taste? "Roya's mother had always said that our fate is written on our foreheads when we're born. It can't be seen, it can't be read, but it's there in invisible ink, all right, and life follows that fate. No matter what." |
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| The Orphan's Song by Lauren KateWhat it's about: Raised in a Venetian orphanage, singer Violetta and violinist Mino form a strong but complicated bond rooted in the music they share.
Read it for: sympathetic characters, a bittersweet love story, and an atmospheric setting.
You might also like: Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick, another richly detailed novel about musical orphans set in 18th-century Venice. |
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| The Electric Hotel by Dominic SmithIntroducing: French film director Claude Ballard, a pioneer of cinema who once worked with the Lumière brothers and now, in 1962, languishes in obscurity as a resident of Hollywood's Knickerbocker Hotel.
His masterpiece? The Electric Hotel, a film that he made with the help of an Australian stuntman, a seductive French actress, and a theater owner turned movie producer.
Reviewers say: "an irresistible and dizzying international tale of early cinema" (The Washington Post). |
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| The Summer Country by Lauren WilligWhat it is: a compelling family saga by the bestselling author of The English Wife, set in colonial Barbados and full of mystery and romance.
1812: Charles Davenant arrives in Barbados to run Peverills, his family's sugar plantation, which proves challenging to say the least.
1854: Englishwoman Emily Dawson inherits the now-derelict Peverills and, with the help of brusque but attractive local doctor Nathaniel Braithwaite, learns about its tragic past. |
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| In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles WinslowIntroducing: Azalea "Knot" Centre, a book-loving, hard-drinking schoolteacher in rural West Mills, North Carolina; and her good friends, Otis Lee Loving and Valley, who help her out of one jam after another.
Read it for: a complex and uncompromising heroine whose unconventional life is rendered in evocative prose.
Reviewers say: This debut depicts "a community so tightknit and thorough it becomes easy to forget the people in it don’t exist" (New York Times). |
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| The Last Tudor by Philippa GregoryStarring: Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, Katherine and Mary, all potential heirs to the disputed throne of England.
For fans of: Susan Higginbotham's Her Highness, the Traitor, which also depicts the political drama of the succession crisis caused by Henry VIII's death.
Should you start here? Although it's the 7th installment of the Cousins' War series, The Last Tudor can be read and enjoyed on its own. |
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| Cleopatra's Shadows: A Fall of Egypt Novel by Emily HollemanIntroducing: Arsinoe and Berenice, the half-sisters of Cleopatra.
What happens: After their father is deposed in a palace coup, 12-year-old Berenice declares herself ruler, setting the stage for a bloody conflict that will pit sister against sister.
Try this next: The Drowning King, which is book 2 in this series; or Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, a biography of the iconic ruler that also delves into dynastic dysfunction. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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