Historical Fiction
August 2025
Recent Releases
Typewriter Beach
by Meg Waite Clayton

Amid McCarthyism in 1957, Isabella Giori dreams of being Alfred Hitchcock's favorite blonde actress. But while temporarily staying at a Carmel-by-the-Sea cottage, she becomes friends with blacklisted writer Leo, changing both of their lives. In 2018, Leo's granddaughter clears out his cottage after his death, meeting his neighbor Isabella and finding secrets in his safe. Read-alikes: Susan Meissner's A Map to Paradise; Sarah Jane Stratford's Red Letter Days.
Amity
by Nathan Harris

In 1866 New Orleans, formerly enslaved siblings Coleman and June are separated, only to embark on perilous, individual journeys through the Mexican desert to reunite and seize the freedom they were promised. 
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
by Kristin Harmel

In Nazi-occupied France, Colette Marceau's mother is executed while her four-year-old sister disappears and is later found dead. Trained by her mother, Colette becomes a jewel thief, targeting the bad to give to the good, and in 2018 Boston, she's still working when a special bracelet linked to her sister appears in a museum. Elderly Colette seeks answers, hoping to finally learn what happened decades ago in this sweeping dual-timeline tale. Read-alike: Pam Jenoff's Last Twilight in Paris.
Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
by Rhys Bowen

Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.
The last assignment : a novel
by Erika Robuck

Fall, 1956. Award-winning but often-maligned combat photojournalist Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle works press for the International Rescue Committee (IRC)-started by Albert Einstein during the Second World War-to bring the plight of the world's war refugees to the American people for their support. Still grieving the death of her mother, just two years after the death of her father, and in the midst of a prolonged and painful separation from her philandering husband, Dickey identifies deeply with displaced people-particularly women, children, and orphans-and longs to help them however she can. After a refugee rescue goes wrong, Dickey finds herself imprisoned in a Soviet camp, and it's there that a flame is lit deep inside her - to be the one of the frontlines showing the world what war really means. Her journey will take her all over the world, and in the most perilous of dangers, Dickey will realize that in trying to galvanize the American people to save the oppressed peoples of the world, that she is saving herself.
A promise to Arlette
by Serena Burdick

With the scope of a saga and the heart of a thriller, this is an evocative historical novel following a married couple whose idyllic 1950s suburban life is threatened by the promises they made during World War II. Sidney and Ida Whipple are living the suburban 1950s American dream, complete with two children and a white picket fence, which didn't seem possible when they first met at the height of WWII in France. Reveling in the present, they can almost convince themselves that their past is behind them.But when their neighbors show off a newly purchased Man Ray photograph, Ida comes face-to-face with the person she loved and lost in the war: Arlette. Only Ida knows the truth about the photograph, and why it can't possibly be authentic. In an attempt toright past wrongs, she travels to California vowing to confront Man Ray. Sidney wakes to find his wife is missing, the photograph in question stolen, and all the secrets they've tried to bury come rushing back. With his daughters in tow, he travels afterIda, hoping to forge a new path together. Instead, their sojourn leads to a shocking discovery that could pull their family apart in this sweeping, unforgettable story about love and friendship, trust and betrayal, and how promises made, broken, and ultimately renewed, can determine our fate.
Before Dorothy
by Hazel Gaynor

Chicago, 1924: Emily Gale and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago behind for the promise of their own American dream. But leaving the city means leaving Emily's beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world. Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have made a life in the warmth of the community of Liberal, Kansas, and among the harsh beauty of the prairie. Their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep. The wide-eyed child isn't the only thing to disrupt Emily's world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and their much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.
The lost story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton

As American book hunter Margo Reynolds races to recover a rare volume in 2024 London, her search uncovers the intertwined lives of Pilar, a defiant librarian in 1960s Havana, and Eva, a Cuban teacher in 1900 Boston, each woman risking everything to protect a powerful literary legacy.
Wayward Girls
by Susan Wiggs

This moving novel of survival, friendship, and redemption follows six teenage girls at an abusive Catholic reform school in 1968 Buffalo, New York, who have been sent there due to pregnancy, lesbianism, or to protect them from family members. Based on a real place, this character-driven novel also revisits the girls in later years. For fans of: Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These; Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys; V.S. Alexander's The Magdalen Girls.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Albert Lea Public Library
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