Historical Fiction
August 2024
Recent Releases
The Goddess of Warsaw
by Lisa Barr

Before achieving Hollywood stardom, Lena Browning was Bina Blonski, a spy in the Warsaw Ghetto. When approached by actress and aspiring filmmaker Sienne Hayes in 2005 Los Angels, Lena consents to a biopic on the condition that she gets to play her older self in the film, only to find that her personal and historical traumas are far from buried. 
The Heart in Winter
by Kevin Barry

In 1891 Montana, young Irish poet Tom Rourke drinks, takes drugs, and falls for Polly Gillespie, the devout mine leader’s new bride. The lovers commit arson, steal money and a horse, and then head west...but a posse is hot on their trail. This buzzy, critically acclaimed novel “is brutal, hilarious, and fabulously entertaining" (Booklist). For fans of: lyrical Irish writers; Cormac McCarthy.
The seventh veil of Salome
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In 1950s Hollywood, when an unknown Mexican ingenue is cast as Salome, a star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary heroine, she becomes the object of envy of Nancy Hartley, a bit player who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.
Every Time We Say Goodbye
by Natalie Jenner

In 1955, Vivien Lowry's promising play in London's West End is critically panned, ending her theatrical career. Encouraged by Peggy Guggenheim, she becomes a script doctor in Rome's burgeoning film industry. Amidst post-war Italy's cultural flux, Vivien navigates personal and professional renewal while confronting the haunting mysteries of her fiancé's wartime fate. This is the 3rd in the Jane Austen Society series, following 2022’s Bloomsbury Girls.
The Lion Women of Tehran
by Marjan Kamali

In 1950s Tehran, Ellie's privileged life changes drastically after her father's death, forcing her and her mother into a poorer neighborhood. Lonely and longing for companionship, Ellie finds solace in her new neighbor Homa, and the two form a friendship that lasts for decades, navigating changing fortunes, turbulent politics, and the meaning of friendship. 
Shanghai
by Joseph Kanon

Having escaped the Gestapo, Daniel Lohr arrives in Shanghai, where glamour and squalor coexist. As he becomes embroiled in his uncle Nathan’s underworld life of crime and politics, Daniel must confront his past and navigate a treacherous path to survival in a lawless city on the brink of chaos.
Maria : a novel of Maria von Trapp
by Michelle Moran

"This dramatic novel, based on the woman glamorized in The Sound of Music, brings Maria to life as never before. In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. He's fascinated to learn about this Catholic novice who was living quietly as an Austrian nun until her abbey sent her away to teach a widowed baron's children. When the assignment turned into a marriage proposal and the family was forced to escape the Nazis, it was Maria who taught them to survive by using the power of their voices and song. Michelle Moran's hugely entertaining novel explores how Hammerstein grossly misinterpreted Maria's story and offers a more nuanced retelling. Maria is a powerful reminder that the truth is often more complicated-and certainly more compelling-than the stories immortalized by Hollywood"
Enlightenment
by Sarah Perry

In the small Essex town of Aldleigh, Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay share a deep connection despite their 30-year age difference. As Grace leaves town to begin her adult life, Thomas becomes obsessed with a vanished astronomer from the 1880s, said to haunt the area. Over two decades, their lives intersect as they grapple with love, fate, and the mysteries of the universe.
The Last Twelve Miles
by Erika Robuck

During the Prohibition Rum Wars, which create a booming smuggling economy, two women masterminds -- Elizebeth Friedman, the inventor of cryptanalysis working for the government, and Marie Waite, on the rise to rumrunner royalty to save her family -- will go to any lengths to rule the Gulf Coast.
The Instrumentalist
by Harriet Constable

A novel of music, intoxication and betrayal is inspired by the true story of Anna Maria della Pietà, a Venetian orphan and violin prodigy who studied under Antonio Vivaldi and became his star musician—and biggest muse. A first novel.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Cumberland County Library System
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Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17050
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