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Literary Historical Fiction
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Daughter of Fortune
by Isabel Allende F ALL
Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover, Joaquin Andieta, to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love.
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The Immortals of Tehran
by Ali Araghi F ARA
Learning the story of a centuries-old family curse upon his father’s death, young Ahmad struggles to protect his loved ones through decades of famine, loss and political turmoil before unexpected life changes converge at the height of the Iranian Revolution.
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Conjure Women
by Afia Atakora F ATA
A midwife and conjurer of curses reflects on her life before and after the Civil War, her relationships with the families she serves and the secrets she has learned about a plantation owner’s daughter.
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Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks F BRO
Young Anna Frith, a vicar's maid, is faced with the loss of her family, the disintegration of her local community, and a passionate, illicit love as she and her village confront the horrors of the plague, in a historical novel based on real-life events in seventeenth-century England.
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Ithaca : A Novel Based on Homer's Odyssey
by Patrick Dillon F DIL
The son of Odysseus, Telemachus leaves Ithaca to find his father—a journey of self-discovery that takes him across the landscape of bronze-age Greece in the aftermath of the great Trojan war.
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco F ECO
In 1327, finding his sensitive mission at an Italian abbey further complicated by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William of Baskerville turns detective.
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The Pope's Daughter
by Dario Fo F FO
A first novel by the Nobel Prize winner for literature imagines the life of notorious Pope Alexander VI's daughter Lucrezia Borgia, tracing her violent marriages and achievements as history's only woman to serve as head of the Catholic Church.
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The Confessions of Young Nero
by Margaret George F GEO
A tale inspired by the rise of the Emperor Nero follows the ascension of a youth to the head of Julius Caesar's imperial dynasty, where he navigates corruption and his mother's ruthless ambitions to pursue his ideals in the arts and athletics.
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The Parisian, or, Al-Barisi : a novel
by Isabella Hammad F HAM
Studying medicine and falling in love in 1914 France, the son of a wealthy Palestinian textile merchant finds his loyalties tested by conflicts between the British government and the independence-minded nationalists of his community.
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Pompeii
by Robert Harris F HAR
When the aqueduct that brings fresh water to thousands of people around the bay of Naples fails, Roman engineer Marius Primus heads to the slopes of Mount Vesuvius to investigate, only to come face to face with an impending catastrophe.
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An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro F ISH
Drifting without honor in Japan's post-World War II society, which indicts him for its defeat and reviles him for his esthetics, aging painter Masuji Ono recalls the events of his life.
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The Piano Teacher
by Janice Y. K. Lee F LEE
Hired by the wealthy Chen family as a piano instructor, Claire Pendleton is seduced by the social life of Hong Kong's expatriate community and begins an affair with Will Truesdale, an enigmatic Englishman with a devastating past.
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Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee F LEE
In early 1900s Korea, prized daughter Sunja finds herself pregnant and alone, bringing shame on her family until a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and bring her to Japan, in the saga of one family bound together as their faith and identity are called into question.
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The Shadow King
by Maaza Mengiste F MEN
Tending the wounded when her nation is invaded by Mussolini, an orphaned servant in 1935 Ethiopia helps disguise a gentle peasant as their exiled emperor to rally her fellow women in the fight against fascism.
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Madame Tussaud : A Novel of the French Revolution
by Michelle Moran F MOR
While the tensions rise between the royalty and the people, Madame Tussaud is requested to tutor the King's sister in wax sculpting and must find a way for her family to survive the coming revolution.
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The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen F NGU
Follows a Viet Cong agent as he spies on a South Vietnamese army general and his compatriots as they start a new life in 1975 Los Angeles.
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Barkskins
by Annie Proulx F PRO
Working as woodcutters under a feudal lord in 17th-century New France, two impoverished young Frenchmen follow separate journeys, one of extraordinary hardship, the other of wealth and craftiness, that shape their families throughout three centuries.
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The Second Mrs. Hockaday
by Susan Rivers F RIV
A tale inspired by a true story follows the efforts of a Civil War veteran to discern the truth about his teen bride, who during the two years he was at war was convicted and imprisoned for allegedly having a baby in his absence and killing it.
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The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See F SEE
The ostracized daughter of a Japanese collaborator and the daughter of their Korean village's head female diver share nearly a century of friendship that is tested by their island's torn position between two warring empires.
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The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead F WHI
A follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning, The Underground Railroad, follows the harrowing experiences of two African-American teens at an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
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