Historical Fiction
May 2025
Recent Releases
33 Place Brugmann
by Alice Austen

Set just prior to and during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, Belgium, this thought-provoking debut examines the challenges and choices of an apartment building's residents, who take turns narrating. They include an architect, his art student daughter, an art dealer, his 18-year-old son, a seamstress, a maid, a widowed colonel, and others. Try this next: The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli.

*If you'd like to request this book, please visit your library and ask for assistance!
Broken Country
by Clare Leslie Hall

In 1955 Dorset, England, teenage Beth falls for wealthy Gabriel, who leaves town. In 1968, Beth, now married to sheep farmer Frank, is still mourning the death of her young son two years before when Gabriel reappears with his own son, setting in motion events that lead to a courtroom trial. This emotionally intense Reese's Book Club pick will please fans of Chris Whitaker's All the Colors of the Dark and Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace.
The marriage portrait
by Maggie O'Farrell

In Florence during the 1550s, captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici, having barely left girlhood behind, marries the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, and now, in an unfamiliar court where she has one duty—to provide an heir—fights for her very survival. (historical fiction). Simultaneous.
The Boxcar Librarian
by Brianna Labuskes

Inspired by real events, this slow-burn novel combines romance, murder, and mystery as it follows three women whose lives eventually connect: a Works Progress Administration editor sent from Washington, D.C. to Montana in 1936, a librarian who delivers books to areas around Missoula in 1924, and an avid reader in rural 1914 Montana. Read-alike: Janet Skeslien Charles' Miss Morgan's Book Brigade.
A Map to Paradise
by Susan Meissner

In 1956 California, actress Melanie Cole is blacklisted by association, reducing her circle to her European maid Eva, her agoraphobic screenwriter neighbor Elwood, and his sister-in-law caregiver, June. When Elwood disappears, Melanie enlists Eva get to close to June and find Elwood as wildfires draw close. Read-alike: Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne's The Starlets.
Harlem rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray

In 1919 Harlem, literary editor Jessie Redmon Fauset is at the forefront of a Black cultural renaissance, discovering talents like Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen, but her ambition and a secret affair with W.E.B. Du Bois threaten her legacy.
Resurrection : a novel
by Danielle Steel

A successful influencer and one part of a power couple on the international stage, 42-year-old Darcy Gray, after her perfect life comes crashing down, must stay indefinitely in France during an escalating worldwide health crisis and, through her newfound friendships with others who are stranded, begins to see glimpses of new possibilities.
The bullet swallower : a novel
by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

In 1964, when Jaime Sonoro, Mexico's most renowned actor and singer, discovers a book telling of the horrific crimes committed by his ancestors, he must pay for their crimes unless he can uncover the truth about his grandfather, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street, Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100

https://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us