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Historical Fiction February 2021
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A Man at Arms : a Novel
by Steven Pressfield
Jerusalem and the Sinai desert, first century AD: In the turbulent aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, officers of the Roman Empire acquire intelligence of a pilgrim bearing an incendiary letter from a religious fanatic to insurrectionists in Corinth. The content of this letter could bring down the empire.
A solution: The Romans hire a former legionary and mercenary, Telamon of Arcadia, to intercept the letter and capture its courier. Telamon operates by a dark code all his own, with no room for noble causes or lofty beliefs. But once he overtakes the courier, something happens that neither he nor the empire could have predicted.
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| The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi HahnJeju Island, Korea, 1948: Follows Junja, from her early days as a haenyeo (one of the remarkable all-female group of divers on the island of Jeju) to her final days as a well-respected elder in Philadelphia's Korean American community.
Witness to history: Junja's dramatic and sweeping story begins during the Japanese occupation of Korea and is also deeply marked by the events of World War II, the Communist rebellion, and the 1950s American military occupation, which mold her into a tenacious survivor. |
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No Heaven for Good Boys : a Novel
by Keisha Bush
Senegal, present: Six-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother’s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever.
Surviving in Dakar: Ibrahimah is sent to the capital city to join his cousin Étienne in studying the Koran under Marabout Ahmed for a year, but instead of the days of learning that Ibrahimah’s parents imagine, the young boys, called Talibé, are forced to beg in the streets in order to line their teacher’s pockets. To make it back home, Étienne and Ibrahimah must help each other survive both the dangers posed by their Marabout, and by the darker sides of Dakar.
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| Outlawed by Anna NorthOld West, U.S., 1894: On the day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.
What happens next: She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by the Kid, a preacher-turned-robber who is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all. |
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My Name Is Eva
by Suzanne Goldring
England, 2016: Evelyn Taylor-Clarke is recuperating from a fall at Forest Lawns Care Home in the heart of the English countryside. It would be easy to dismiss Evelyn as a muddled old woman, but her lipstick is applied perfectly and her buttons done up correctly.
Germany, 1951: When Evelyn's niece Pat opens an old biscuit tin to find a photo of a small girl titled Liese, 1951 and a passport in another name, she has some questions for her aunt. And Evelyn is transported back to a place in Germany known as the Forbidden Village, where a woman who called herself Eva went where no one else dared, among shivering prisoners, to find the man who gambled with her husband's life.
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Olive Bright, Pigeoneer
by Stephanie Graves
Pipley in Hertfordshire, England, 1940: Though war rages across mainland Europe and London is strafed by German aircraft, the little village bustles along much as it always has. Twenty-two-year-old Olive Bright fills her days by helping at her father's veterinary practice and tending to her beloved racing pigeons, while waiting for her best friend to return from the war.
Secrets: Jameson Aldridge and his associate, from the covert British intelligence organization known as Baker Street, enlist Olive and her pigeons to help in the war effort. But in the midst of her subterfuge, the village of Pipley is dealing with another mystery. Local busybody Miss Husselbee is found dead outside Olive's pigeon loft. Is the murder tied to Olive's new assignment?
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Our Darkest Night : a Novel of Italy and the Second World War
by Jennifer Robson
Venice, Italy, 1943: Life is becoming increasingly perilous for Italian Jews like the Mazin family. Antonina Mazin's one hope to survive is to leave Venice and her beloved parents and hide in the countryside. Nico Gerardi was studying for the priesthood until circumstances forced him to leave the seminary to run his family's farm. Rather than risk a perilous escape across the mountains, Nina will pose as his new bride.
Dangers: Farm life is not easy for a cultured city girl who dreams of becoming a doctor like her father. Nico's provincial neighbors are wary of this soft and educated woman they do not know. A local Nazi official with a vendetta against Nico grows more and more suspicious, determined to exact revenge.
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The Paris Library : a Novel
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.
Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor's mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.
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The Rose Code
by Kate Quinn
England, 1940: As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to the mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets, self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines, and a local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, is one of the few female cryptanalysts.
England, 1947: As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a ferver, the three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum.
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V2 : a Novel of World War II
by Robert Harris
Holland, 1944: Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat.
Saboteur: When rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides in the hunt for the saboteur. Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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