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Historical Fiction December 2017
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| The Indigo Girl: A Novel by Natasha BoydTaking charge of her family's plantation, 16-year-old Eliza Lucas decides to pay off her father's debts with a lucrative commodity: indigo dye. However, in 1739 South Carolina, indigo is an experimental crop and dye-making is a mysterious process known only to the estate's enslaved workers, who brought the knowledge with them from Africa. In exchange for their expertise, Eliza teaches her new assistants to read and write, which is against the law. This atmospheric novel draws on letters and archival documents to tell the story of a real-life entrepreneur and the first woman to be inducted into South Carolina's Business Hall of Fame. |
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| Birdcage Walk by Helen DunmoreFrom the safety of 1790s Bristol, England, freethinker and radical pamphleteer Julia Elizabeth Fawkes reacts, first with eagerness and then with dismay, as the promise of the French Revolution gives way to the bloody reality of the Reign of Terror. However, the conflict abroad poses more personal danger to Julia's daughter, Lizzie, whose property developer husband finds his business interests threatened by the prospect of war and descends into obsession and paranoia. Complex characters and Gothic atmosphere add intrigue to this historical domestic drama. |
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| The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet FitchAs revolutionary fervor engulfs 1916 St. Petersburg, budding Bolshevik Marina Makarova rejects her bourgeois background and embraces radical politics. The resulting societal upheaval will affect not only Marina but also her family, friends, and lovers. This sweeping saga stars a courageous and passionate heroine who survives a turbulent era of Russian history and may appeal to fans of Simon Sebag-Montefiore's Sashenka. |
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| I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott"Love is not easy with a man chosen by Fate for greatness," declares Elizabeth Schuyler as she proceeds to recount her long (and sometimes tumultuous) relationship with her husband, Alexander Hamilton. From the couple's first meeting to Hamilton's death in a now-infamous duel, this richly detailed novel provides readers with a glimpse into a couple's marriage and a woman's heart. Readers interested in Alexander's perspective of events may enjoy Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman's The Hamilton Affair. |
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| The Last Midwife by Sandra DallasThe only midwife in the isolated mining town of Swandyke, Colorado, Gracy Brookens believes with all her heart that delivering babies is her life's purpose. When a wealthy mine owner accuses her of murdering his infant son, Gracy's life and livelihood are threatened. Although Gracy knows that she's innocent, she also realizes that it may not matter -- being a witness to people's private lives makes her dangerous to those with secrets to keep. Like author Sandra Dallas' previous novel, Fallen Women, The Last Midwife employs well-researched details of life in 1880s Colorado to tell the dramatic story of a marginalized woman who confronts a small town's social elite in her pursuit of truth. |
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| The Orphan Mother: A Novel by Robert HicksBorn into slavery, Mariah Reddick (first introduced in The Widow of the South) is now a free woman and a successful midwife in Franklin, Tennessee. Occupied with her work and the management of her modest property holdings, she's always steered clear of politics. Then her only child, Theopolis, is killed at a rally, prompting Mariah to seek his killers and bring them to justice. Set during Reconstruction, this novel explores a mother's grief while exposing the racial fault lines in a segregated Southern town. |
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| The Birth House: A Novel by Ami McKayIn 1917 Nova Scotia, 17-year-old Dora Rare, the first daughter in five generations of her family, becomes an apprentice to elderly midwife Marie Babineau. Together they use herbs and folk remedies to help the women of their isolated community during difficult labors, unwanted pregnancies, and heartbreaking losses. Then a medical doctor arrives in their village promising sterile and painless births in a modern maternity hospital, and Dora and Marie's traditional methods come under scrutiny. This absorbing debut novel was a bestseller in Canada. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Rochester Hills Public Library 500 Olde Towne Rd Rochester, Michigan 48307 (248) 656-2900www.rhpl.org/ |
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