Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/30/2012
ISBN-13: 9780316206297
ISBN-10: 0316206296

In her "wonderfully imaginative, transporting" (Booklist) return to historical fiction, Room author Emma Donoghue presents a diverse collection of 14 short stories inspired by the events of the past. "The Lost Seed" introduces an embittered Puritan seeking revenge on his neighbors, while "Daddy's Girl," set in 19th-century New York City, stars a young woman who learns a shocking secret about her famous father after his death. "The Gift" unfolds through the correspondence between an impoverished woman who gives up her daughter and the child's adoptive father. These individuals and others come to life in Donogue's indelible portraits, which also provide a window into the eras in which they lived and the places they inhabited.

Publisher: Ecco
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/23/2012
ISBN-13: 9780061995347
ISBN-10: 0061995347

Having risen from penniless orphan to salaried bureaucrat, sekretaire Emil Larsson has everything he needs to secure his position in society -- except a suitable wife. When cardsharp, seer, and political activist Mrs. Sofia Sparrow promises to help him find love through a tarot card spread known as the Octavo, Emil eagerly accepts her offer. As Emil searches for the eight individuals depicted in the cards -- one of whom is his destined true love, all of whom are fated to play a crucial role in Emil's success -- he unwittingly becomes enmeshed in the political intrigue surrounding King Gustav III's court. In addition to a colorful cast of characters and an intricate plot, this richly detailed debut, set in 1791 Stockholm, also depicts the cultural obsessions of the era, from the seductive art of the fan to the mystical geometry of cartomancy.

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/18/2012
ISBN-13: 9781608197705
ISBN-10: 1608197700

When a gravely ill man, both deaf and mute, collapses in front of a hospital in 1950s Iasi, Romania, nurse Safta recognizes the stranger. It's Augustin, better known as "Tinu," who -- despite being the illegitimate son of the cook at her family's grand estate -- was Safta's childhood friend. Although Tinu is illiterate, he and Safta have always communicated through Tinu's drawings. As Safta accompanies him to their childhood home, the story alternates between the pair's sheltered pre-war existence, the bloody battlefields of World War II, and the post-war Communist regime in Romania. This novel's haunting, lyrical depiction of the high personal costs of war as well as the rich inner lives of its damaged characters may appeal to fans of Amanda Hodgkinson's 22 Britannia Road.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/18/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307268433
ISBN-10: 0307268438

Desperate to escape her birthplace, 18-year-old Irish seamstress Beatrice Palmer is thrilled when the glamorous Countess Inéz spirits her away to Berlin in 1938 to serve as a lacemaker for a wealthy German-Jewish family, the Metzenbergs. Unfortunately, before Beatrice even arrives, the Third Reich requisitions the Metzenbergs' town home -- forcing the family to retreat to their country estate along with their servants. In the years that follow, Beatrice bears witness to her employers' attempts to sustain their cultured, civilized existence, despite the ever-encroaching realities of war. Although their settings differ, this novel may appeal to fans of Natasha Solomons' The House at Tyneford, which also focuses on a domestic servant's experiences during World War II.

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Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/09/2012
ISBN-13: 9780547567846
ISBN-10: 0547567847

"Tithed" to the church as an oblate in the early 1100s, eight-year-old Hildegard von Bingen spends the next 30 years of her life walled up in a tiny chamber adjoining a Benedictine monastery, where she serves as handmaiden to disturbed teenage anchorite Jutta. During her decades of imprisonment, Hildegard finds spiritual sustenance in her divine visions, as well as in her education, which allows her to master languages, musical composition, and the art of healing. However, as soon as she perceives an opportunity to escape her situation, Hildegard uses everything she's learned during her seclusion to advocate for her freedom -- even though by doing so she risks being branded as a heretic.

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Publisher: Anchor Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2000
ISBN-13: 9780385487054
ISBN-10: 0385487053

In the 1760s, two young men, Kola and Suwaibu, are abducted from their native Africa and transported by slave ship to America. One hundred years later, their descendants Lifee and Mordecai meet on a plantation, fall in love, and -- in the days following Emancipation -- travel together across the South, seeking a safe place to establish a home and start a family. If you're interested in more African-American family sagas, check out Calvin Baker's Dominion -- which follows several generations of free people of color in North Carolina prior to the American Revolution -- or Lalita Tademy's Cane River and its sequel, Red River, both set in 19th-century Louisiana.

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Publisher: Delta Trade Paperbacks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/30/2008
ISBN-13: 9780385342575
ISBN-10: 0385342578

When 29-year-old Elizabeth Middleton sets sail from England in 1792 to join her father, a judge, in upstate New York, her plans to establish a school take a back seat to her romance with Nathaniel Bonner, a white man raised by members of the local Mohawk tribe and torn between two very different worlds. Determined to be together despite objections from all sides, Elizabeth and Nathaniel elope...and that's just the beginning of their adventures. Sara Donati's Wilderness series continues with Dawn on a Distant Shore. Fans of the steamy romance and breathless, action-packed plotting of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books may enjoy this lush, passionate family saga set in 18th-century America, although readers should note that Donati's series does not contain elements of time travel.

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Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/28/2010
ISBN-13: 9780525951650
ISBN-10: 0525951652

Following five different families -- English, Welsh, German, Russian, and American -- and set against an early-20th-century backdrop that includes events such as the Great War, the Russian Revolution, women's suffrage, and the beginning of the Jazz Age, Fall of Giants kicks off a new trilogy by Ken Follett, author of the acclaimed The Pillars of the Earth. If you like the historical sagas of Edward Rutherfurd and Steven Saylor, which follow a handful of families over generations, you'll love this. And if you do, be sure to pick up the 2nd installment of the series, Winter of the World.

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Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780671024192
ISBN-10: 0671024191

After making his fortune in the gold fields of New South Wales, Alexander Kinross decides he needs a respectable wife -- despite his enduring love for his mistress, brothel madam Ruby. Alexander writes to his cousins in Scotland, who send him 16-year-old Elizabeth Drummond. But no amount of money can persuade Elizabeth to love her new husband, although she does manage to give him the children he desires. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's unlikely friendship with Alexander's mistress introduces her to Lee, Ruby's half-Chinese son, who falls passionately in love with Elizabeth -- adding even more drama to everyone's lives. Documenting the triumphs and tragedies of one family in 19th-century Australia, this sweeping, emotionally intense saga will keep readers turning pages.

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Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416550549
ISBN-10: 1416550542

Alone on the Australian docks stands a little girl who doesn't know her own name and whose only clue to her identity is a book of fairy tales written by Eliza Makepeace. Adopted by the harbormaster and his wife, the child -- dubbed "Nell" -- reaches womanhood without ever suspecting that she's adopted. After learning of her mysterious origins, Nell spends the rest of her life seeking answers -- and dies before discovering the truth, leaving her granddaughter, Cassandra, to carry on the search. But as Cassandra embarks on a quest that leads her to Cornwall and the crumbling Montrachet estate, she wonders if she's prepared to unearth the truth about her family's history.

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