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Historical Fiction April 2021 An actual saga demands change, both in its characters and its world. - Katharine Kerr
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Band of Sisters
by Lauren Willig
What happens: eschewed by her wealthy graduated classmates, a former scholarship student reluctantly volunteers to help World War I French civilians before finding herself surrounded by desperate families in villages decimated by German bombs.
About the author: Lauren Willig is the bestselling author of twenty novels, including The Summer Country, The Ashford Affair, and The English Wife. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School.
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The Rose Code
by Kate Quinn
What it's about: the heart-stopping WWII story of three female code breakers and the spy they must root out after the war is over.
1940: As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
1947: As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum.
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| A Thousand Ships by Natalie HaynesWhat it is: an atmospheric and witty retelling of the Trojan War, from the shifting perspectives of both familiar and unfamiliar female characters.
Starring: the goddess Calliope, who decides to make the most of her role as a Muse; Penelope, who starts losing patience after learning why it's taking so long for her husband Odysseus to return; Oenone, who was abandoned by her husband Paris for Helen of Sparta.
About the author: Classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes is a regular contributor to The Sunday Telegraph and The Independent. Her previous works include the novels The Furies and The Children of Jocasta, children's book The Great Escape, and the nonfiction book The Ancient Guide to Modern Life. |
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The Kitchen Front
by Jennifer Ryan
What it's about: Four women compete for a once-in-a-lifetime spot hosting a BBC cooking program during World War II in this vibrant historical novel.
For fans of: historical fiction and TV cooking competitions.
Reviewers say: "Wonderful... Readers with an appetite for homefront WWII novels will find this deeply satisfying" (Publishers Weekly).
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| Those Who Are Saved by Alexis LandauWhat it is: a compelling and thought-provoking story of survival and family separation set during the Nazi occupation of France.
Vichy France, 1940: Russian Jewish émigrés Vera and Max Volosenkova entrust their young daughter Lucie to governess Agnes after being ordered to report to an "internment" camp.
California, 1945: Although the couple were unexpectedly given a chance to escape Nazi custody, there was no way to return for their daughter along the way. The war now over, Vera is desperate to get back to France to search for Lucie in the postwar sea of refugees. |
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| The Evening and the Morning by Ken FollettWhat it is: a sweeping and descriptive prequel to The Pillars of the Earth set during England's tumultuous 10th century.
Starring: down-on-his-luck boat builder Edgar; spirited young Norman noblewoman Ragna; scholarly and reform-minded cleric Brother Aldred.
Why you might like it: This intricately plotted tale of a land torn between its Saxon and Viking identities shows how a tiny riverside hamlet began its transformation into the town that series fans know as Kingsbridge. |
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| Fifty Words for Rain by Asha LemmieWhat it's about: Noriko Kamiza is the illegitimate child of an African American GI and a Japanese aristocrat born during World War II. Abandoned by her mother, she lives a confined, deprived existence with her status-conscious grandmother in Kyoto, Japan.
Read it for: the unanticipated strong bond Noriko forms with her half-brother Akira, the family's legitimate heir; the parallels drawn between social change and Noriko's burgeoning independence after she escapes to Swinging Sixties London.
Reviewers say: "A truly ambitious and remarkable debut" (Booklist). |
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| House of Gold by Natasha SolomonsThe premise: In 1911, strong-willed Austrian heiress Greta Goldbaum moved to England to marry a man she didn't know for the sake of her family's business interests. Though they get off to a rough start, Greta and her new husband build a life together, and soon they fall in love for real.
The problem: At the outbreak of World War I, Greta finds herself torn between her family of origin and the family she has created, both of which are threatened by the increasing antisemitism that's spreading across Europe.
For fans of: Barbara Taylor Bradford's Cavendon Hall, another family saga steeped in doomed Belle Époque glamour in the run-up to World War I. |
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| Jacob's Ladder by Ludmila UlitskayaWhat it is: a sweeping epistolary novel that chronicles three generations of a Russian family, from just before the Revolution to the 1970s.
Read it for: the engaging narrative voice and creative juxtaposition of personal and political upheaval.
Reviewers say: "A sweeping, ambitious story reminiscent at times of Pasternak in its grasp of both history and tragedy" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Bass Rock by Evie WyldWhat it is: the compelling, intricately plotted, and century-spanning story of three women on the Scottish island of Bass Rock and the connections between them.
Starring: Viviane, a grieving woman who arrives on Bass Rock to prepare her grandmother's house for sale; Viviane's grandmother Ruth, who moved to the island after World War II with her new husband; Sarah, an 18th-century woman fleeing witchcraft charges who finds shelter with a Bass Rock family.
Is it for you? Author Evie Wyld isn't shy about some of the grimmer aspects of life as a woman in history, which may not appeal to all readers. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books?
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