Historical Fiction
June 2020

Recent Releases
A Thousand Moons
by Sebastian Barry

What it's about: a makeshift family's story of growth and survival in Reconstruction-era Tennessee, a dangerous place to be for anyone who lives outside the lines.  

Starring: Winona Cole, a 16-year-old Lakota girl first introduced in the novel Days Without End; Civil War veterans John Cole and Thomas McNulty, Winona's adoptive fathers; Tennyson and Rosalee, siblings and former slaves who later join the Cole family.

Read it for: the complex characters, lyrical language, and meditations on what it takes to build a family.
The Queen's Fortune : A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty that Outlasted the Empire
by Allison Pataki

A historical novel inspired by the life of Desiree Clary finds the future queen of Sweden and Norway entering a secret engagement with Napoleon Bonaparte before imperial uprisings and his relationship with rising-star Josephine places her life at risk.
Three Hours in Paris
by Cara Black

A suspenseful historical tale based on the mystery of Hitler’s abrupt departure from newly occupied 1940 Paris follows the mission of a British intelligence markswoman who, while trying to assassinate the Führer, discovers that she has been set up.
The Great Unknown
by Peg Kingman

A Scottish wet nurse searches for her unknown father while a quarryman smuggles a remarkable fossil to Paris against a backdrop of the publication of Charles Darwin’s largely ignored Origin of Species. By the author of Original Sins.
Liberation
by Imogen Kealey

What it’s about: the life and work of Nancy Wake, a real-life operative for the French Resistance and Special Operations Executive that the Nazis called "the white mouse" for her ability to escape tight situations.

About the author: Imogen Kealey is the collective pseudonym of novelist Imogen Robertson and screenwriter Darby Kealey.

Media buzz:
A film adaptation of the novel is in development and set to star Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway.
Exile Music
by Jennifer Steil

What it's about: the flight of a Jewish family of musicians after the Nazi invasion of Austria destroys their culturally vibrant Viennese community, and their efforts to rebuild their lives in Bolivia.

Why you should read it: While most people are aware of the postwar escapes of Nazis to South American countries like Chile and Argentina, the stories of prewar Jewish refugees are less discussed.

About the author: Jennifer Steil is a journalist and memoirist whose previous novel The Ambassador's Wife was published in 2013.
Contact your librarian for more great books!


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