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Historical Fiction June 2026 |
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| The Foursome by Christina Baker KlineNorth Carolina, 1939: When famous cojoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker arrive in Wilkes County, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.
Sarah and Adelaide Yates: Daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Addie sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sallie, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined. |
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| Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung HanKorea, 1930s-1940s: Young-Ja, is a girl who infuses food with her emotions. She revels in her gift for cooking, nourishing the people she loves with her cheerfulness. But her sunny childhood comes to an end in 1931 when Japanese soldiers crush her family’s defiance against the Empire. Young-Ja is cast adrift, her food turning increasingly bitter with grief. When a Korean rebel fighter notices her talents, however, she is whisked off to Manchuria to join a secretive sisterhood of beautiful teahouse spies. There, Young-Ja finds a new sense of belonging and starts using her abilities for the resistance. But the Imperial Army is not yet finished with her…
Decades later: Young-Ja lives alone in Seoul, withdrawn from the world until her Tokyo-born granddaughter Rinako bursts into her life with the ability to see into dreams. In cultivating a tentative bond, they confront the long-buried past in a stunning emotional climax. |
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| Lidie by Jane SmileyIllinois, 1857: America's future is precarious as civil war looms on the horizon. After her abolitionist husband is murdered in lawless Kansas Territory, Lidie Newton returns, in mourning, to her hometown of Quincy, Illinois. But her sisters have little comfort to offer, and Lidie is haunted by the memories of her failures—until she takes an interest in her niece, Annie. Beautiful, self-assured, and mischievous, Annie sticks out in Quincy. She becomes an actress at the local theater, and when she is offered the opportunity to perform abroad, she decides to run away. But travel is dangerous for a young unmarried woman, so Lidie, armed with her pistol and her wit, goes with her.
Liverpool: The two women embark on a perilous journey across the Atlantic, rushing toward an unknown future in England. Once they arrive in Liverpool, they vanish into new roles in the household of Annie's benefactor, Mr. Mallory Cunningham. Annie takes a stage name and finds her way to a career, while Lidie becomes her ladies' maid. But will either of them be content with her new lot in life? |
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| Love & Other Monsters by Emily FranklinSwitzerland, 1816: When a global climate catastrophe (known as The Year Without Summer) wreaks havoc, a group of famous young writers gather at a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva. Brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, her fiery fiancé Percy Shelly, the famously promiscuous Lord Byron, and his sexually tormented personal physician, all sheltered together. But they are not alone - Claire Clairmont, Mary’s impressionable, clever, and dangerously loyal step-sister joined them. That summer of sex, betrayal, and creative passion gave the world the works of Frankenstein, the modern vampire legend, and the mythic image of these Romantic literary giants.
Claire: While those around her write what will become some of the most famous works in literature, Claire must ask herself just how far she will go for love. With dramatic weather threatening the food supply, Claire proves her worth by learning to forage for food, all the while documenting everything in her journal. As the summer progresses, passions rise and secrets refuse to stay hidden in Claire’s pages. |
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| The Mountains We Call Home by Kim Michele RichardsonKentucky, 1953: Cussy Lovett, is a Packhorse Librarian, famed for bringing books to the people of Appalachia, She marries for love, but she's a Blue (caused by methemoglobinemia) and her husband is white, so in 1953 both are thrown into Kentucky prisons for miscegenation.
In prison: Cussy works her way to a prison librarian position, but incarceration holds many dangers. She finds a new calling, bringing literacy to the prisons of Kentucky and the underserved neighborhoods of downtown Louisville. Bringing hope to downtrodden women and voiceless city residents alike she finds a home, even while separated from those she loves.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, tells the beginning of Cussy's story. |
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Narrow the Road
by James Wade
Texas, 1930s: With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William Carter is struggling to keep his family's cotton farm afloat in the face of drought and foreclosure. As his options wane, William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father's whereabouts.Together with his best friend Ollie, a mortician in training, William sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. But before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country's most uncharted, untamed land.
Along the way: When the boys agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena, eliciting the ire of the show's leader, the nefarious con man Doctor Downtain, the danger is doubled. As William, Ollie, and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William's father, Downtain is closing in on them, readying to make good on his violent reputation.
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| The Original by Priya ParmarConnecticut, 1928: When young Katharine Hepburn loses her beloved brother, she makes two promises - she will become famous, and she will never let anyone hurt her again. Leaving home at twenty-one to pursue a career on Broadway, Kate is talent-spotted, screen-tested, and lured to Los Angeles, accompanied by her lover, Laura.
1930s Hollywood - a town full of secrets: Everyone comes with a story. When Kate arrives in California to launch her film career, she leaves behind her East Coast marriage and icy patrician family to live and love on her own terms. Despite her confrontational manner and unusual beauty, she is scooped into the studio system and launched as a star—but stars must play by the rules and Kate, brilliant, bisexual, and fiercely independent, refuses to conform. |
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| A Perfect Hand by Ayelet WaldmanEngland, 1879: Miss Alice Lockey, daughter of a tenant farmer, has by dint of hard work, innate intelligence, and a cunning ability to predict the moods of her betters, raised herself to the lofty status of lady’s maid at Alderwick Park. Though her mother has advised Alice to work only until marriage, Alice has thus far resisted the temptations of matrimony among the neighboring widowers and pig farmers, more content to enjoy the fruits of her labor—or at least the portion of it her father will share after it is paid to him.
Romance: In a ploy to spend time with handsome valet Charlie, Alice tries to end her lady's infatuation with one (no-good) man and push her toward Charlie's employer. If they marry, then Alice and Charlie can work together as husband and wife. But soon the women's suffrage movement causes Alice to ponder what she really wants. |
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A Shipwreck in Fiji
by Nilima Rao
Fiji, 1915: Sergeant Akal Singh, an unwilling transplant to Fiji, is just starting to settle into his life in the capital city of Suva when he is sent to Ovalau, a neighboring island, on a series of fool's errands. First, investigate reports of German soldiers in the area. Second, chaperone two strong-willed European ladies, Mary and Katherine, on a sightseeing tour. And third, supervise the only police officer currently there, an eighteen-year-old constable with a penchant for hysterics.
Embroiled in local issues: He must deal with the gruesome death of an unpopular local and the imprisonment of a group of Norwegian sailors in Taviti's uncle's village. To add to Akal's woes, Katherine, the charming aspiring journalist, harbors an agenda of her own. Will Akal be able to keep her--and himself--out of trouble before anybody else gets killed?
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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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