|
Historical Fiction June 2025
|
|
|
|
| My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel AllendeRaised by her Irish former nun mother and a loving stepdad in San Francisco, Emilia del Valle never knows her Chilean aristocrat father. As a young journalist covering the Chilean Civil War of 1891, she begins a romance and also meets the father who abandoned her. Isabel Allende fans will relish reading about the del Valles, whose various members often appear in her work. |
|
|
Tyrant
by Conn Iggulden
In 50 AD Rome, Agrippina maneuvers her way to power by marrying Emperor Claudius, ensuring her son Lucius's adoption as Nero, as mother and son navigate a treacherous path of ambition, alliances, and betrayal in their pursuit of dominance.
|
|
| Six Days in Bombay by Alka JoshiWhispers of independence swirl in 1930s Bombay, India, as young Anglo-Indian nurse Sona bonds with her latest charge, famous painter Mira Novak, who's also mixed race. After Mira dies, Sona is determined to honor her new friend's request: hand-delivering paintings to people in Prague, Florence, and Paris. Read-alike: Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. |
|
| Gabriële by Anne Berest and Claire BerestTalented young French musician Gabriële Buffet meets mercurial Spanish artist Francis Picabia in 1908 and soon marries him. In Paris, the couple grows close with artist Marcel Duchamp while embracing the avant-garde as World War I approaches. Written by two of Buffet's great-granddaughters, this eye-opening biographical novel spotlights a woman integral to art history. Try this next: Jeanne Mackin's Picasso's Lovers. |
|
| These Days by Lucy CaldwellGermany rains bombs on Northern Ireland's capital city in spring 1941. Navigating the destruction, sisters Emma, who's secretly in love with coworker Sylvia, and Audrey, who's not-so-happily engaged, do what they can to help others while questioning their futures. |
|
| The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall KellyInspired by real events, this compelling novel follows Mari Starwood in 2016 as she visits reclusive Martha's Vineyard painter Elizabeth, who has ties to Mari's recently deceased mother. Elizabeth tells Mari about the island during World War II, focusing on two teenage sisters who form a book club, run the family farm, and look for German U-boats and spies. For fans of: Madeline Martin's The Last Bookshop in London; Amy Lynne Green's The Blackout Book Club. |
|
| The Eights by Joanna MillerIn 1920, Oxford University admits degree-seeking women for the first time. On Corridor Eight, insecure Beatrice, socialite Otto, scholarship student Marianne, and grieving Dora bond as they navigate sexism, personal loss, societal expectations, and the lingering trauma of World War I. This well-researched, character-driven debut will please fans of Natalie Jenner's Bloomsbury Girls and Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night. |
|
|
A Bookseller in Madrid
by Mario Escobar
An exciting and rigorously documented novel by one of the most translated and read Spanish authors in the world. This hopeful and inspiring story in the face of the horror of intolerance is, above all, an indisputable tribute to literature.
|
|
|
The Harvey Girls
by Juliette Fay
1926: Charlotte Crowninshield was born into one of the finest Boston society families. Now she’s on the run from a brutal husband, desperate to disappear into the wilds of the Southwest. Billie MacTavish is the oldest of nine children born to Scottish immigrants in Nebraska. She quit school in the sixth grade to help with her mother’s washing and mending business, but even that isn’t enough to keep the family afloat. Desperate, both women join the ranks of the Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve in America’s first hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad.
|
|
|
Until the Red Leaves Fall
by Alli Parker
Emmy Darling has a secret. She has a few. Her lemon meringue pie is a recipe from a women’s magazine, she’s always wanted to be a playwright, and the best parts of her husband Sebastian’s plays are the scenes she’s written during edits. But when charismatic theatre impresario and leading lady, Virginia van Belle, insists Emmy write about her wartime experiences as the lead play in her 1957 season, Emmy is faced with every writer’s dilemma. Because Emmy’s biggest secret is that her name is actually Emiko Tanaka. She and her Japanese-Australian family were arrested, brutally split up and held in internment camps by the Australian government after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And it’s this secret that Virginia wants to bring to the masses.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|