|
|
Historical Fiction March 2023 |
|
|
|
|
| The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas CorreaWhat it is: a sweeping, character-driven family saga about sacrifice, separation, and survival.
Where it's set: Berlin as the Jazz Age ends and Nazism rises; Cuba at the beginning of the Revolution.
Reviewers say: “Readers will be deeply moved” Publishers Weekly). |
|
| The New Life by Tom CreweWhat it's about: After Oscar Wilde is tried and convicted of “gross indecency” in 1895, two Londoners must decide if it's worth the personal and professional risk to publish the results of a study of homosexuality that they've spent years collaborating on.
Loosely based on: the pioneering work and advocacy of English writers John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis.
For fans of: Colm Tóibín and Emma Donoghue. |
|
| Independence by Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniStarring: sisters Deepa, Priya, and Jamini, whose sheltered lives are shattered when their Hindu family is displaced in the traumatic upheaval of the Partition of India.
Read it for: the well-developed, nuanced characterizations of each of the sisters and their rich inner lives.
Reviewers say: This “moving depiction of family life following great loss” (Kirkus Reviews) is “a must” (Publishers Weekly). |
|
| The Lipstick Bureau by Michelle GableWhat it's about: After her recent marriage to an American, Czech-born Niki Novotná joins the nascent OSS and becomes an unlikely linchpin in the agency's propaganda and sabotage operations in Rome during World War II.
Inspired by: Barbara Lauwers, a Czech-American lawyer, journalist, and operative known for her wartime work in Italy.
Why you might like it: The Lipstick Bureau takes the time to thoughtfully explore the personal fallout of Niki’s high-stakes profession. |
|
| Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila MinnicksWhat it is: the thought-provoking story of the effects of the desegregation movement on a small, all-Black Alabama town that has thrived in its isolation.
How it starts: with a young Black woman getting off a bus to Birmingham in the titular town of New Jessup, where she is shocked to find it free of markers of the oppression she's used to.
Reviewers say: Moonrise is “highly recommended” and “would make a great movie” (Library Journal). |
|
| The Circus Train by Amita ParikhWhat it's about: Traveling across Europe with the circus her illusionist father works for, polio survivor Lena befriends Alexandre, a Jewish orphan who hides among the troupe to evade the Nazis.
What goes wrong: interpersonal and financial considerations lead to the ultimate betrayal, scattering members of the circus and sending others into hiding as they all try to survive the war.
For fans of: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; The Ringmaster’s Daughter by Carly Schabowski. |
|
|
|
The Book of Everlasting Things
by Aanchal Malhotra
Starring: Samir, a Hindu perfumer, and Firdaus, a Muslim calligrapher, whose forbidden love story sweeps readers from the early 20th century to the present day.
Read it for: a lush, atmospheric story of cultural, political and personal turmoil surrounding the 1947 Partition of India.
For fans of: Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees, Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
|
|
| A Castle in Brooklyn by Shirley Russak WachtelStarring: Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson, who met as boys in Poland while hiding from the Nazis, both eventually making it to the US after the war.
How it starts: Zalman, who moved to Minnesota to become a farmer, visits Jacob in New York to rekindle their friendship, neither man aware how meeting again as adults will radically alter the course of both their lives for good. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|