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Historical Fiction July 2026 |
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The Book of I
by David Greig
Scotland, 825 CE: In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead.
As the seasons pass: In this wild and lonely setting, the three's inherent distrust of each other, melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them.
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The Fault Between Us
by Stephanie Landsem
Montana, 1959: Claire, Bridget, and Frannie Reilly were once as close as sisters can be. When Claire marries a handsome cowboy and settles out west, a thousand miles away, the sisters' strong bond begins to unravel. Claire struggles to adjust to a life utterly unlike her upbringing, and surprising revelations about her husband's past make her wonder if she's made a terrible mistake. With a new baby and a shoestring budget, the last thing she needs is her family's interference.
Sensing something isn't right: Bridget takes a temporary nursing assignment in Yellowstone, promising her father she'll bring Claire home--with or without her husband. When Frannie, the rebellious youngest sister, is sent along in hopes it will corral her behavior, the Reilly sisters reunite on the eve of a seismic event that rips Yellowstone apart, tests their survival, and exposes the ever-widening rift in their relationship.
Based on real events of the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake.
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| The Fire Agent by David BaerwaldGermany, 1900: Born into an aristocratic German Jewish family, Ernst Baerwald is a gifted linguist, talented musician, and fearless idealist. When he’s recruited to become a spy—his cover working for a company that would become the notorious chemical conglomerate IG Farben—his life becomes an extraordinary adventure spanning two continents, two world wars, and impossible choices that will haunt him forever.
A world of intrigue and passion: Ernst battles Japan’s Yakuza while entertaining its royalty, and hosts Europe’s most brilliant performers. He falls deeply in love...with two women. He witnesses the rise of fascism in both Japan and Germany. And when the forces of fascism in Japan meet the horrors of Hitler’s Germany, this German Jew faces an impossible choice: destroy the country he loves most or become complicit in unimaginable evil.
Based on the life of author David Baerwald’s grandfather, |
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Fonseca
by Jessica Francis Kane
London, 1952: Penelope Fitzgerald’s husband is a struggling alcoholic, and their literary journal is on the brink of ruin. Out of the blue she receives a letter from two spinster sisters named Delaney, distant relations with a silver mine, who suggest they may leave an inheritance to her son Valpy. Pregnant with their third child, she leaves her two-year-old, Tina, with relatives and sails for New York with six-year-old Valpy in tow. From there, mother and son take a bus all the way to Fonseca, Mexico in pursuit of this legacy,
When they arrive: Nothing goes to plan. There are others vying for the Delaney money, including an ambitious American couple; various local entrepreneurs; artists (including Edward Hopper and his wife Jo); and finally a handsome stranger who claims he is a Delaney. For three months, from Day of the Dead to Candlemas, Penelope must navigate a quixotic household and guide her impressionable son.
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| A Harlem Wedding by Tiffany L. WarrenNew York City, 1920s: Yolande was the only child of N.A.A.C.P. icon W.E.B. Du Bois. She was bold, vivacious, and beloved by gossip columnists. A true daddy’s girl, Yolande followed her father’s advice--where she went to college (Fisk, Papa’s alma mater); which sorority she joined (Delta Sigma Theta). But in matters of the heart, Yolande and her father did not agree. Yolande’s true love was jazz musician Jimmie Lunceford, son of a working-class family from far-off Denver, Colorado. Their romance was an open secret, and more than a little scandalous.
Despite it all: Yolande wound up marrying her father’s choice, famed poet Countee Cullen. Their lavish uptown wedding was the hottest social ticket of 1928. With three thousand attendees, sixteen bridesmaids, and Langston Hughes as a groomsman, it was truly a sight to behold. But, immediately after the wedding, Yolande’s carefully constructed fairy tale begins to crumble... |
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| A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher MurrayNew York City, 1930s: Eunice Carter, a NYC assistant district attorney, and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, has set her sights on bringing down the one and only Lucky Luciano--head of New York City’s five largest organized crime families. Polly Adler has worked long and hard to build up her high-class brothel business. But Lucky has gone too far, putting her girls in danger.
Together: These two women come together, fashioning a case utilizing a network of women. They assemble evidence bit by bit, under the nose of the man they’re trying to convict. It is this very alliance—of two women from vastly different worlds—that launches the most sensational trial New York City has ever seen. |
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| The Windsor Affair by Melanie BenjaminEngland, 1930s: The story of the feuding Windsor brothers and their wives. The Men: Edward David Windsor, heir to the British throne, and Albert, known as Bertie, his younger brother, “the spare.” The Women: Edward’s wife Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée, and Bertie's wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, descended from Scottish nobility. The Feud: a rivalry that will last all their lives, make headlines, and still fuels gossip pages nearly a century later.
Told from the perspective of both women: The novel propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the time, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors, with all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different—yet perhaps more similar than they would admit—wives of royals. |
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| The Young Will Remember by Eve J. ChungKorea, 1950: It’s the coldest winter in decades, and twenty-eight-year-old Chinese American journalist Ellie Chang is on a military flight to cover a battle in the northern mountains when her plane is shot down. As she emerges from the fallen aircraft onto an icy field surrounded by the enemy, Ellie is sure it’s the end, certain she’ll never make it home to her parents…until a woman pushes her way through the crowd and claims Ellie as the lost daughter that she’s been searching for since the last war ended. Never mind that Ellie doesn’t speak a word of Korean.
Emma: Ellie is taken in by her rescuer “Emma” and the Paks, a pastor’s family. As the war intensifies, the sky alighting with bombs overhead, Ellie convinces Emma and the Paks to travel south towards an elusive promise of safety, where Ellie insists they are more likely to find Emma’s real daughter, stuck on the other side of the frontlines. |
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| The Forgotten Midwife by Laura AnthonyNew Jersey, 2023: Riley Carmichael is getting married and finally joining a huge, loving family. For most of her life it’s just been her and her wonderful grandmother, Betty, but as late-stage dementia overtakes her grandmother’s mind, Riley knows she’s losing her too. On one of Riley’s visits to Betty, she encounters her grandmother in one of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity. Betty desperately hands Riley a tattered birth certificate for an unknown baby born in Ireland in the 1950s. Full of questions about her heritage, Riley embarks on a trip to Ireland.
Tipperary, Ireland, 1954: Margaret Lannigan’s life is made up of weekly dances and spending time with the love of her life, Joseph. When Margaret’s older sister suddenly passes away, it falls to Margaret to fulfill the family’s commitment to the church, forcing her to part with Joseph and take the veil. Margaret is sent to a Home for Fallen Girls to care for expectant mothers who fell pregnant outside of marriage. There she meets a young and terrified Delia O’Rourke, the sister of her childhood best friend. She must find the strength she needs to protect this young woman and her baby in the face of a system built to ensure they disappear.
Based on true historical events, |
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| Land by Maggie O'FarrellIreland, 1865: On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, cartographer Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. In a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.
A sudden change: The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home? |
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The News from Dublin: Stories
by Colm Toibin
collection of nine short stories,The eleven stories transport readers across continents and eras.
The Journey to Galway, a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children.
Sleep, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother.
The News from Dublin, as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.
T ib n's stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.
A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour. A young woman is pregnant during the Spanish Civil War. An undocumented worker finds himself living an illegal life and must leave San Francisco, and his child, after thirty years in America. Three sisters who have been living in Argentina decide to return to Catalonia.
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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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