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Historical Fiction April 2025 |
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Abduction of a Slave
by Dana Stabenow
Ancient Egypt: Tetisheri and her uncle and business partner, Nebenteru, journey to the city of Cyrenaica in search of a valuable spice that has all of a sudden become unavailable everywhere. But she is also a secret agent to Cleopatra - her mission, to deliver a message and find a slave.
A city on the brink of war: But there are others in Cyrenaica with hidden agendas: Julius Caesar's spies, Caesar's sworn enemy Mettelus Scipio, and the ever duplicitous King Juba I. As Tetisheri navigates a landscape filled with spies and hidden agendas, she uncovers a web of intrigue linked to impending war and a local murder mystery.
Eye of Isis Book 4
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Code Noir: Fictions
by Canisia Lubrin
France, 1685: King Louis XIV creates the infamous Code Noir, a set of fifty-nine historical decrees defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire.
The decrees influence: 59 interconnected stories, poems, and flash fiction mirror the original code's 59 articles, weaving together fragments of Black experience across time, space, and literary genres.
The stories are accompanied by fifty-nine black-and-white drawings - one at the start of each fiction - by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.
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| The English Problem by Beena KamlaniIndia, 1931: Shiv Advani is an eighteen-year-old growing up in India. But he is no ordinary young man. Shiv has been personally chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to go to England to learn their laws, and then return home to help drive the British out of India. Before he leaves, his family insists he fulfill his arranged marriage, and he is hastily betrothed to a young woman he hardly knows.
London: Shiv knows his duty: get in, learn the letter of the law, get out. But the racist colonialism of “the empire on which the sun never sets” seeps into everything—not just landed territories, but territories of the mind: literature, language, religion, sexuality, self-identity. Soon the people Shiv sought to be liberated from will be the people he desperately wants to be a part of. In the end, Shiv must fight not only for his country’s liberation but also his own. |
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| The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O'ConnorRome, 1943: The Nazis are in control of the city. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, is the architect and acknowledged leader of The Choir - made up of an Italian countess, a British diplomat, an Irish medical student, and others. This covert network is smuggling escapees out of Rome.
Meanwhile: SS Commander Paul Hauptmann has been tasked with destroying the entire operation, and the price of failure is high—his wife and children are under Gestapo lock-and-key in Berlin. But, the Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance, has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann’s authority.
Stand-alone sequel to My Father's House. |
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| The Jackal's Mistress by Chris BohjalianVirginia, 1864: Libby Steadman's husband is a Confederate soldier being held in a Union prison. Her days are spent running a gristmill, with the help of her 12-year-old niece, a 60-year-old freedman, and his freed wife. All the grain they can produce is requisitioned by the Confederate Army. The Shenandoah Valley where she lives is frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.
Danger: Libby finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy—but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? |
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The Reformatory: A Novel
by Tananarive Due
Florida, 1950: Robbie is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town, in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Survival: Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys, forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes, have gone missing. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules, but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it's too late.
Based on the the infamous Dozier School for Boys.
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The Restless Wave: A Novel of the United States Navy
by James Stavridis
Maryland, 1941: Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941, without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer - other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor.
Hawaii, 1943: But war is brewing, their class has graduated early, and then tragedy strikes. Scott Bradley James is a talented young officer, but he has a lot to learn. And war will have a lot to teach him.
Written with careful fidelity to the truths of war that have made sea stories essential.
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| The Riveter by Jack WangVancouver, Canada, 1942: Josiah Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to make a new life for himself. The Second World War is in full swing, and Josiah, like so many Canadians, wants to prove his loyalty by serving his country. But Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard where he finds work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships.
Moving on: One night, Josiah spots Poppy singing at a navy club, and despite their different backgrounds, they fall for each other instantly. Determined to prove himself to Poppy, her parents, and the world, Josiah travels to Toronto where he’s finally given the chance to enlist in the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion heading to Europe. |
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Frankie: A Novel
by Graham Norton
London, Today: Frankie Howe has lived a long life, her small flat is crammed full of art, furniture - and memories. Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat, to help her as she recovers from a fall. Frankie's fondness for Damian grows, and she finds herself sharing stories from her past with him.
New York City, 1960s-80s: Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York, Frankie finds herself in a progressive, Bohemian world of artists on the brink of fame, aspiring writers and larger-than-life characters. Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide, and where the AIDS crisis of the 1970s and 80s devastates the city.
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| Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher MurrayNew York City, 1919: A high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness.
W. E. B. Du Bois: The founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives… |
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| Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-SmithNew York City, Turn of the 20th Century: Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her hometown of Utica, New York, and live a life worthy of the society pages she writes for. In New York City, she meets shy businessman Oscar Schmidt, a queer middle manager at a soap company. At a time when women find it difficult to achieve in business, their partnership allows her to pursue her business goals, while their lavendar marriage allows her to pursue romances with woman.
Vivian's plans require capital: Vivian and Oscar approach Oscar's old money rival, Squire Clancey. Together they found Clancey & Schmidt, a preeminent manufacturer of soap, perfume, and candles, proceeding to create an empire of personal care products. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, the trio form a new kind of partnership. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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Longwood Public Library800 Middle Country RoadMiddle Island, New York 11953
(631) 924-6400
longwoodlibrary.org |
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